One of the recent releases from the Screamworks division of Movie Score Media is the soundtrack from the horror movie THE TOYBOX. The music is by talented composer Holly Amber Church who has created a work that contains more than its fair share of jumps, frights and jolts. The score is a fusion of symphonic textures and synthetic colours and sounds. The composer combines both superbly to fashion a soundtrack that is not only superbly atmospheric but also has to it an alluring and in a kind of strange way attractive style and sound. I first heard the music of Holly Amber Church when her score for THE WORRY DOLLS was released. THE TOYBOX is a deliciously dark and brooding work and one that relies upon low and shadowy sounds that are combined with harsh and jagged stabs alongside what I would call driving and foreboding passages that literally make the listener feel uneasy and sends chills up and down their spine. I was impressed at the composers use of vintage sounding synths, in fact these could have come straight out of the 1980.s, they have to them an almost awkward sound, but when combined with the other effects and conventional instrumentation they work wonderfully and create a mood that is filled with tension and suspense. The score does have some quieter interludes, which the composer does so well, utilising piano and strings.
The score is an inventive one and the composer also introduces some strange sounding effects to bolster the work, this I think comes across to the full in the cue STEVE’S NIGHTMARE which is an unnerving listening experience but is also a brilliant piece of innovative and highly creative writing. It is also score filled to the brim with, visceral and sinewy sounding strings, effective and dark percussive elements and half heard sounds and fragments of melodies that tantalise and invade the listeners mind. Certainly, one for the collection a sinister and virulent score that will delight, perplex, haunt and excite.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 