Round-Up: THE WITCH Poster, Q&A with THE HALLOW Composer James Gosling, VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN Featurette

In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic, and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family's frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest - within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately - animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member's faith, loyalty, and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways.

Writer/director Robert Eggers' debut feature, which premiered to great acclaim at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival - winning the Best Director Prize in the U.S. Narrative Competition - painstakingly recreates a God-fearing New England decades before the 1692 Salem witch trials, in which religious convictions tragically turned to mass hysteria. Told through the eyes of the adolescent Thomasin - in a star-making turn by newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy - and supported by mesmerizing camera work and a powerful musical score, THE WITCH is a chilling and groundbreaking new take on the genre.

Official Website: http://thewitch-movie.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWitchMovie/?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thewitchmovie

Snapchat: @A24Films"

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The Hallow Q&A with James Gosling:

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, James. How did you get involved composing the music for Corin Hardy’s The Hallow?

James Gosling: I got involved in the first instance when Corin heard some of my music while the film was still in the development stage and we talked a little at the time. Then about a year or so later, once the project had gone into production, I was offered the opportunity to pitch, which involved scoring an 8-minute section of the film, and off the back of that I was offered the job.

With The Hallow, Hardy takes a dark angle on fairytales and folklore. Did you find yourself taking the same approach on the musical side of things?

James Gosling: Absolutely. If I’m doing my job properly it can be no other way. The composer is always in cahoots with the underlying themes and the overall tone that the director is looking to impart.

What were the most challenging elements of putting together the score for The Hallow?

James Gosling: It would have to be the time and budget constraints. With The Hallow finding itself accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, it meant the post-production period was truncated, and with the budget for the score being as tight as it was, that meant this was coupled with an inability to finance many delegation opportunities, so it was effectively a music department consisting of one, which meant I was doing the job of, well, more than 100 if you count the orchestra!

Were you a fan of creature features and dark folklore prior to coming onto this project, or did you grow more interested in the subgenres while working on the film?

James Gosling: No, it wasn’t something I’d particularly followed before. I’ve always been a great fan of cinema, in general, and I’ve always enjoyed the classics such as Jaws, Alien(s), Nightmare On Elm Street, Predator etc, but I’ve never before explored this subgenre to any greater extent than that. Though that changed with The Hallow of course!

How much creative collaboration did you have with the director, Corin Hardy?

James Gosling: There was a lot. It was very much a continual process of dialogue, experimentation and collaboration between myself and Corin, which started with me scoring the film reel by reel and presenting ideas, and then we would discuss and hone from there.

Did your previous work on Merlin and Atlantis help prepare you for The Hallow in any way?

James Gosling: Well, they were both great projects to be a part of, and they were key to developing the requisite skills and experience of creating and producing under pressure, though of course the genre is entirely different and so the musical language required for The Hallow presented entirely different challenges.

What types of instruments can viewers expect to hear in The Hallow?

James Gosling: Well, the score is largely electronic plus solo violin plus solo child’s voice, largely because of the time and budget constraints, which meant it was never going to be possible to record a live orchestra or have access to much in the way of live musicians. But necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and that definitely proved the case here.

With The Hallow now in select theaters and on VOD, what other projects do you have on deck that you can tease for our readers?

James Gosling: Well, the only project that I can talk about which is currently announced and definitely happening is an animation series being put together by Lego called Nexo Knights. A distance in tone and genre from The Hallow but no less enjoyable. It tells the tale of a group of young techno-savvy knights who battle to keep their kingdom safe from the dastardly Jestro and The Book Of Monsters! It’s great fun. The kids are going to love it! Probably a fair few adults too!

Below, we have two sound samples of Gosling's work on The Hallow. To learn more about Gosling, visit:

• http://www.jamesgosling.net/
• Twitter

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Victor Frankenstein: "James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe star in a dynamic and thrilling twist on a legendary tale. Radical scientist Victor Frankenstein (McAvoy) and his equally brilliant protégé Igor Strausman (Radcliffe) share a noble vision of aiding humanity through their groundbreaking research into immortality. But Victor’s experiments go too far, and his obsession has horrifying consequences. Only Igor can bring his friend back from the brink of madness and save him from his monstrous creation."

Directed by Paul McGuigan, written by Max Landis, and produced by John Davis, Victor Frankenstein stars Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott, and Freddie Fox. 20th Century Fox will release the film in theaters on November 25th.