It seems a curious and distinctly downhill path from The Wings of the Dove to X-Pax to The Skeleton Key, but that's the one that director Iain Softley has trodden over the last few years.  For this rather uninspiring, voodoo-themed horror film he has fortunately brought along composer Edward Shearmur, whose career has blossomed out of sight since he first attracted attention with his music for Softley's last-but-one film.  It provides a rare dramatic role for Kate Hudson and opportunities to cash large cheques to actors as talented as John Hurt and Gena Rowlands, who should be doing far better things than this.

Those last nine words apply equally to Shearmur, but like so many silly films of the past, The Skeleton Key provided him with an interesting opportunity as a composer, and it's one he approached with vigour and imagination, producing a brilliant score in the process which intriguingly combines typical orchestral slasher movie music with dark blues from the Deep South, coming up with a score that half reminds one of Christopher Young's horror scores and half of John Williams's brilliant, underrated Rosewood.  The album, released by Varese Sarabande, is actually dominated by blues standards ("Woke up this morning...") but spread through are about 25 minutes of score.

It is an arresting, striking work.  Edgier blues sounds are ideal for the film, and Shearmur delivers.  Hearing the orchestra (or sometimes just synth cells) accompanied by close-miked guitars is hugely effective; add to this some typical Robert Elhai orchestration, with occasional, brilliant Goldenthal-style brass flurries and you get one of the most original and high-quality horror scores in a great many years.  The sudden, unexpected, screeching appearance of the orchestra in "Ben Escapes" is enough to make the listener jump out of his seat every time, and the inclusion of what sounds like a ram's horn (though I'm sure isn't) genuinely creepy; the adrenaline-pumping "Saving Ben" quite superb, with wonderfully inventive orchestration; and even the more ambient, synth-dominated material is edgy and interesting.  More action appears in the lengthy "The Conjure Room", in much the same vein, and again it is particularly interesting.

About the worst thing is the way the album is sequenced.  "Thank You Child" is a rather subtle track and a strange way of closing the album, since it makes it end with a whimper and not a bang, and I'm not sure placing the score scattered through the songs is a particularly good way of presenting it.  Still, that's a rather minor quibble about what is a genuinely creative and imaginative score.  Highly recommended.