Back in 2023, I started my review of Andrew Morgan Smith’s Bunker by quoting the composer saying that director Andrew Langley had asked him to write a horror score in the style of the 1940s. Here we are three years later and I note from the album’s press materials that this time round, Smith said “When Adrian Langley approached me to score The Oval Portrait the task seemed daunting: ‘What if a Waxman, Korngold, or Bernstein scored this movie?’”
For Bunker (which seems to have been retitled The Fallen in the intervening period) I said that actually it reminded me a bit more of 1980s horror music than 1940s – but also that it was absolutely terrific. And here we are again – The Oval Portrait (based on the shortest of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe – just two pages long!) is also absolutely terrific. While there are certainly some echoes of the 1980s masters in this one as well, it is a more overt tribute to the sound of the classic monster movies.
There is a sense of gothic romance running through the score – the swirling melodies, elegance of the occasional violin solo, and yes, absolutely a sense of melodrama evoking Waxman in particular, joined sometimes by Herrmannesque silky, shimmering strings (“Whitlock’s Morning” could be an outtake from North by Northwest).
My favourite cue is the outstanding “Oval Portrait Overture” which covers a surprising amount of ground in its two minutes – and inevitably many of the ideas are explored in individual cues through the score. “Twists and Turns” starts by reprising its wonderful, unabashedly romantic violin theme before the composer heads through a set of ideas which gradually transition from romance to terror, quite beautifully so.
This is all done so smartly – pastiche can be hard to do, and pastiche of something from 80 years ago that can serve as a relevant film score today, doubly so. There is such precision in getting just the right sound – the beautiful winds (listen to “Reading Microfilm”!) and strings, the brass saved for the heaviest moments. And too, the melodies – there are themes in this score, it is not just an exercise in style – old-fashioned yes, impressive – also yes. The title track “The Oval Portrait” which appears fairly late is absolutely spectacular – the score’s main theme given a gigantic arrangement for the full orchestra and it’s classic gothic horror showmanship of the highest order.
I’ve only heard a few scores by Andrew Morgan Smith and each of them has been hugely impressive. The Oval Portrait may just be the best yet – it’s a delightful quirk that he has somehow managed to get the budget to record scores to some low-budget movies with real orchestras, and hopefully he gets the chance to work on some higher-budget ones because he clearly deserves it. What a talented composer he is – this score is clearly the year’s standout one for a horror movie and will appeal to everybody who longs to hear a vintage sound – and indeed, everybody who likes powerfully descriptive narrative film music of any kind.
Leave a Reply