“The Beast Inside” Musical Score Review by Edmund Barker

Synthesizers have for decades been a staple of great otherworldly horror soundtracks, whether it be the band Goblin’s eerie tones for “Suspiria” or John Carpenter’s iconic do-it-yourself approach to the electronic score of “Halloween.” At the same time, there exists an older school of horror movie music epitomized by the tense strings of Bernard Hermann’s “Psycho” and similar midcentury works. The beauty of the soundtrack to the new Jim Towns-directed horror film “The Beast Inside” is how deftly it blends both styles of spooky music.

The opening suite in particular is a heart-pumping standout, going from quiet, mournful piano in the first half to a pounding, drumming intensity near the end, followed by a respite. The full score by Randy Edelman, the composer of such films as Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and The Last of the Mohicans, radiates a real pensive and mysterious quality in addition to its more intense, scary moments. Tracks like the fifth tune on the soundtrack use synthesizers in an eerie, theremin-like way to underline something wicked and menacing hiding under the surface of everyday life—perfect for the story of this new supernatural chiller.

Produced by its star Sadie Katz and co-starring Vernon Wells of “The Road Warrior” and Laurene Landon of “Airplane II,” the film follows a mother named Anne (Katz) who faces the terrifying prospect that she may be demonically possessed and no one believes her—and that worse yet, it appears to be a ghoulish affliction that runs in the family. Desperate to save her kid from such a fate, Anne has no choice but to try to perform an exorcism on herself, where things really go wild. “The Beast Inside” looks to be a fresh and intimate spin on the familiar possession narrative, with a dark and terrifying music score to boot.