Album: Stonehearst Asylum
Artist: John Debney
Released: 2014
Description: Stonehearst Asylum is a loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”. Scoring this Gothic-esque film is John Debney, a film composition veteran of 26 years who received an Acadamy Award nomination for Passion of the Christ, and whose soundtrack for the recent Jungle Book is well celebrated in film score circles. Stonehearst Asylum is part horror, part Gothic drama, and part romance, and though it was not well received, the many things the film tried to be offered up lots of creative opportunity for Debney.
The score has quite beautiful moments, such as in the solo violin of “Eliza’s Theme”, but also covers over the journey and learning of the visiting doctor, eventually growing to his discovery of something horrible, wherein the music slants towards the horror and thriller focus. The reason I write to this is because of the emotional and romantic threads throughout which hover above a layer of first uncertain but then clear danger, a quality expected from a Gothic (audio) tale but not often realized. If you are writing a period piece, a Gothic tale, or even a ghost story, give this a listen.
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