Oculus (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Taylor Newton Stewart and Andy Grush, a.k.a. The Newton Brothers, claim director Mike Flanagan’s feature debut as their decade-long collaboration's first horror film score. Yet they note the project’s masterful electro-organic fusion had its roots in tomandandy’s equally adventurous 2002 soundscape for The Mothman Prophecies. Indeed, Grush played on Mothman’s sessions, noting “we spent a lot of time mangling sounds and interweaving melody on that film, and we slipped into that approach with Oculus.” Taylor notes that they “spent about three weeks recording different sounds, then processing them through effects and software. Sheet metal, broken glass, cymbal scrapes, and ambient white noise were the bulk of it. We also pitch-shifted the orchestra up and down, which was usually doubled with synths.” Stewart credits Flanagan with suggesting the score’s eerily pulsing bass motif; its restless, shifting tempo imparts a slyly crafted sense of sonic unease.