Music - Frank Ilfman delivers a haunting Kosher score for Ghost Stories

Par Mulder, 11 avril 2018

Ghost stories will be available in theaters and on-demand worldwide April 20th. Score album available on Varese Sarabande. Saturn award-winning composer Frank Ilfman (Big Bad Wolves) scores Lionsgate UK, IFC’s GHOST STORIES. The film marks the first collaboration between the composer and directors Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman. The film stars Nyman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther and Martin Freeman. Ilfman recorded the film’s haunting score at Air Studios Lyndhurst Hall in London. GHOST STORIES will be available worldwide on April 20, 2018. GHOST STORIES score album will be released by Varèse Sarabande digitally and on CD April 13.

Nyman and Ilfman’s first encounter was serendipitous. In 2013, Ilfman was attending the premiere of the film he scored, critically-acclaimed, BIG BAD WOLVES. Andy Nyman was attending that same premiere and was impressed with the score and the two were introduced by a producer. Nyman invited Ilfman to a stage play of Ghost Stories at London’s Art Theatre. The two remained in contact and three years later, Nyman and Dyson asked Ilfman to score the film adaptation of Ghost Stories. After reading the script, Ilfman knew the directors wanted an orchestral cinematic score. The score was also played on set during production to inspire the actors.  The story follows Professor Phillip Goodman (Nyman), a debunker of all things paranormal, who has devoted his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans on his own television show. His skepticism is put to the test, however, when he receives a file of three chilling, inexplicable cases: a night watchman Whitehouse) haunted by disturbing visions as he patrols an abandoned asylum; an edgy young man (Lawther) involved in a hellish car accident deep in the woods; and a wealthy former banker (Freeman) visited by the poltergeist spirit of his unborn child. Even scarier: each of these macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to Professor Goodman’s own life. Will they make a believer of him yet?

The connections between the film and the play were important to Ilfman. “The original play didn’t have any music, but it was clear from day one, that we wanted to have the essence of the stage play when we can, have the mystery supernatural feel looming, we wanted to make sure once you entered the world of Goodman you stay there,” he explained. “We used many new techniques with the orchestra and the hall space at Air studio, so we can get a more ethereal feel for the score throughout. In the horror genre, virtually any sound can be made scary. I personally try to take the audience in a different direction than expected, to melodically and psychologically relax them, bring them to the edge and then take them over the top!”

The composer was methodical in his representation of Goodman’s journey even using the character’s Jewish heritage to influence the melody at the beginning of the score as well as develop a theme for the character. The use of violins and clarinets add a folklore feel, “something you might hear a cantor sing in temple,” Ilfman said. “I wrote five fully developed themes/suites and used hints from each as we dive deeper and deeper into the mystery cases that Professor Goodman is investigating, all the themes melodically differ but they all share some common hints that we could use when needed. I sampled and recorded many items like bone flutes and monkey skull shaker, ripped fabrics and other toys to be used on the scarier parts and as a sound design atmospheric layer under the orchestra.”

Other notable credits from Ilfman include Mercenaries, directed by Paris Leonti, starring Robert Fucilla and Billy Zane; the BBC’s four-part document Putin, Russia and the West and the internationally acclaimed heartbreaking film Bitter Seeds, directed by Micha Peled. The composer has also won Best Music from the Israeli Film Academy and the Catalonian International Film Festival for Big Bad Wolves. Forthcoming projects include director Richard Scobie’s Apples and Oranges and the romantic comedy Emotional Rescue, starring Heather Graham and Timothy Hutton.

Synopsis:
Arch skeptic Professor Phillip Goodman embarks upon a terror-filled quest when he stumbles across a long-lost file containing details of three cases of inexplicable 'hauntings'.

Ghost Stories
Directed and written by Andy Nyman, Jeremy Dyson
Produced by Claire Jones, Robin Gutch
Starring Andy Nyman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther, Martin Freeman
Music by Haim Frank Ilfman
Cinematography Ole Bratt Birkeland
Edited by Billy Sneddon
Production company : Altitude Film Entertainment, Warp Films
Distributed by Lionsgate Films
Release date : October 5, 2017 (London Film Festival), April 6, 2018 (United Kingdom)
Running time : 98 minutes
Country : United Kingdom

(Source : press release)