Corin Hardy’s The Hallow is a strange miracle of horror, a creature feature that is being lauded for its atmosphere, its story, and wonderful visuals. It’s rare that a film that falls into this subgenre gets this kind of praise (here’s our review), which makes it all the more important to recognize all the pieces that bring it together.

That’s why we’ve got an exclusive interview with composer James Gosling, who talks about the process of creating the soundtrack for this fantasy horror film. Ranging from talking about the instruments of Ireland to the idea of film music being an “unseen character” that drives the emotion, Gosling brings us closer to understanding the film from a perspective we don’t often see.

You can follow James on Twitter.

Coming from “Merlin” and “Atlantis”, what was it like to compose for ‘The Hallow’?

In some practical ways it was very similar – tight deadlines and lots of ground to cover in a short amount of time. In other ways the difference in genre meant a real contrast in musical style and language. The atmosphere required for The Hallow was of course much darker and aimed at a different audience than was the fantasy-adventure, family-entertainment of Merlin and Atlantis.

‘The Hallow’ takes place in Ireland, which has a rich history of amazing folk music and wonderful instruments. Did these stylings or instruments come into play with your compositions?

Yes, one of the first decisions in fact was to make use of the fiddle, or solo violin depending on your frame of reference. Not only because it has such a well-established relationship to the rural Irish setting, but also because it has a similarly well-established relationship to the world of horror film scoring. We were working with a very limited budget, so a handful of live solo instrumentalists were all that was affordable, and it very quickly became an obvious and easy decision. You can hear Yuri Zhislin, our violinist, dotted throughout the score, sometimes solo, sometimes blending with samples for a grander effect, but always adding a beautifully ethereal and unsettling tone to the sound world. Also the score for the main title sequence was an attempt to make use of a particularly idiomatic Irish fiddle sound to help set the place, though it’s not long until the horrors begin and the music morphs with it into tension, fear and terror.

On top of having a rich musical history, Ireland is also a stunningly beautiful and, at least for an American such as myself, mysterious country. Was there any influence of the scenery itself in how you formed your music?

I can’t say it was influential in a particularly conscious way to be honest, but that being said you could make an argument for this being true for the opening ‘arrival in Ireland’ scene where we are presented with large sweeping landscapes – this is where I used the Irish fiddle to help to set that tone. You could also say it was true for the beautifully dark and atmospheric woodland locations where much of the second half of the film is set. These locations and the way they were shot were extremely evocative and atmospheric. So in that sense you could say it was very influential to the overall tone that the music taps into, but other than that the score is more consciously designed to help add the necessary tension and emotional trajectory of any given scene and it is this which drives the score for the most part.

While it’s being touted as a “creature feature”, ‘The Hallow’ is receiving wide praise for being smart and genuinely scary. What was your reaction to the film as you were working on it?

My initial reaction was that it was something quite different from much of the usual horror genre, and was even at times, especially in the first half of the film, more like a thriller in fact. It also had a heart to it that is not often present in horror, which can often be gratuitous, voyeuristic and incessant from top to bottom, not that that is necessarily a bad thing of course, that can be fun too, but I think it’s fair to say that particular ground has been well trodden. So my answer is yes, this seemed different. The malevolent fantasy was tempered by a grounded realism that was at the heart of Corin Hardy’s (the director) vision for the film. And the ‘creatures’ weren’t so much supernatural, but instead an ancient and organic presence that have existed in the Irish woodlands for eons according to the film’s folklore. I know that the film was originally pitched as ‘Straw Dogs meets Pan’s Labyrinth’ and that sums up its intentions well for me. What at first could be a darkly sinister humanistic threat slowly revealed itself to be something quite different, but as I say not quite supernatural either. As for how scary it was while I was working on it, well without any finalized sound effects or score, and with much of the visual effects missing, and having watched each scene roughly 4 billion times, the shock and awe impact is much diminished of course. The real tension and horror is only properly born when these elements are all in place, and you’re sitting in a dark movie theatre and watching it for the first time with the sound turned up!

I’ve often seen the music of a horror film as being an unseen character one that we may not give full attention to in the moment but one that drives a scene like a hidden puppet master. If you had to try to describe your music for ‘The Hallow’ as some sort of physical manifestation, what would it look like?

I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment though I’d say this was true of any genre of film that uses composed underscore whether its horror or Harry Potter. And absolutely the puppet master is a great analogy for the film composer, as he or she is often entirely invisible, or maybe consciously-unnoticed is a more accurate way of putting it. If they drop the strings you suddenly realize just how much of the potency is due to this invisible entity. I found a good example of this recently on YouTube where someone had taken the final throne-room scene from the original Star Wars film and removed John William’s Elgarian heroics and replaced them with a few coughs and splutters coming from the assembled crowd together with a few Wookie noises. The effect is extraordinary. What is usually an erect and thrilling heroic epilogue is transformed into a pale and flaccid, even cringeful and laughable shadow of its former self. As for what would be the physical manifestation of The Hallow score, I think for large sections of it, it would have to be that shadowy Irish twilight woodscape that inspired it, and for other sections maybe one of Corin’s beautifully crafted Hallow prosthetics!

How do you see yourself having grown as a musician and composer now that ‘The Hallow’ is complete?

I feel enthused and like anything is possible now. I’ve completed my first feature film score under extremely challenging time and budget constraints, where I was at times questioning if it was really even possible to pull it off at all, and in the end not only did we make the finishing line with a 70 minute score in tow (though admittedly by the skin of teeth), but after seeing it in all its glory for only the second time at the Sitges Film Festival last week, I can objectively say I’m really proud of it too. So from now on very little will seem daunting by comparison. And of course each new experience is an opportunity to hone your skills and explore different musical avenues and sound worlds and to practice the craft. I feel like this experience has propelled me forward immeasurably in this regard and I now look forward to future opportunities to continue the journey.