I can see why one might feel that way, Harold. The score is indeed a very offbeat choice for a horror-tinged thriller/psychodrama like The Shuttered Room. Arguably, it was a really big risk on the filmmakers' part.
If so, tho, I do think it was a successful one. Certainly it draws attention to itself at first -- at least for being really damn good, but especially if you know it's a thriller you're going to be watching. This challenges you to debate, on some level, with yourself as to whether or not you'll accept/let yourself accept the score as a thriller-score. But, dangit if before too long that music isn't sounding exactly like the story's landscape looks, its characters act... for me, at least, the score does indeed ending up suiting the film perfectly, contributing considerably, as another poster noted, to the film's mystery and eeriness. It reveals to the viewer (and listener) a musical/filmic way of expressing those very qualities that for lots of folks will no doubt be totally new...
Matthew
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jrcjohnny99
16 years ago
Funnilly enough, I hadnt seen this film for years, until I watched it tonight after tivo-ing it the other week;
I had rembered one thing tho, I hated the score and found it relentlessly distracting; 20 years later, I STILL think the same thing...
On it's own the score may be great, but it just takes you out of the movie too much for me.
On that note it reminds me of the score to "Ordeal By Innocence"; on it's own the music was terrific but it was amazingly distracting in the movie...
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adam-merrick
16 years ago
I saw this years ago aged about 11 but the classic soundtrack made an impression on me then. Have been dying to find it again and then there it was on you tube. I'm going on a driving holiday soon to Belgium/ Holland with a pretty girl and will get it down as a CD for our little jaunt. Amazing 40 years after it was composed Basil's work is still moving us. Shame he's not around to enjoy his new found fans.
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