Title - ‘Don't Be Afraid of the Dark’ (Lakeshire Records)
Artist - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack score for ‘Don't Be Afraid of the Dark’ is one of the best that I have heard in a long, long time. Melodic, haunting, stirring, and so much more, created by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, it tells the (musical) story of an introverted little girl called Sally Hurst.
She has just moved in with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim when she realizes that their sprawling estate holds its fair share of secrets. Ascending to the depths of the house, Sally gains access to a secret lower level that has lain undisturbed for nearly a century, when the original builder vanished without a trace.
When Sally accidentally opens the gateway that kept the creatures locked up tight, she realizes that in order to prevent them from destroying her family is to convince her skeptical father than monsters really exist.
The soundtrack CD kicks of with the truly beautiful, albeit too short 'Gramophone Lullaby,' before heading into both the vibrantly haunting 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Main Titles)' and the harp-infused 'Sally Arrives at Blackwood Manor.' 'Lamb Lamp Lambency' is a music box suite and is followed by the lovely, but doeful 'Sally's Lullaby.'
And with none of the instrumental tracks classified as being long, 'Garden Music,' 'Into the Basement,' 'Sneaky Sally' and 'Silly Sally' then fairly skip by.
'Tooth Fairy's Gift' is another quick melody more attune with a little girl's music box, whereas the much longer 'Gardener Gets Snipped' is way more hauntingly depressive. Both 'Threesome' and 'Don't Turn Out the Lights' are run of the mill album fillers for the midway point of any film/OST, but 'Bed Bugs' is in-your-face terrifying!
The piano-infused 'Shrink Rap' is next, before the trippy 'Sally Leaves' and the long 'The Library' come forth. The four-minute turmoil of 'Goblins in the Garage' is a great cut, with its successor (at a record, for this album, of nearly eight minutes) 'Goblin Trouble' next. The CD ends with both the uplifting 'Return to Blackwood' and the worrying 'Voices from the Pit'.
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