Soundtrack For An Anonymous Horror Movie
Published by Bucks Music Group
14 Tracks with a Total Running Time: 39 min
Music Composed by Richard G. Mitchell

I first became aware of composer Richard Mitchell when I saw the film Caveat, directed by Damian McCarty. Because I enjoyed the movie so much, I purchased the soundtrack that Mitchell had created. When I did my review for it, I wrote “like the film itself, the music burrows into your psyche, adding to the strangeness you are watching on screen, enhancing the images, the feelings, and most of all, the uneasiness it is creating within you.” When McCarty’s next movie came out, Oddity, I was just as excited to see if it was as good as his first film, which it was. The score was once again by Mitchell, but for some reason, there wasn’t any release of the official score.

Until now. Well, sort of.

Possibly due to right issues, or whatever else goes on behind-the-scenes of this stuff, the score is now available, but under the title Soundtrack for An Anonymous Horror Movie! And once again, Mitchell has created a score that flows along with the film, enhancing the mood and feelings we are getting from watching the film. Most movie scores have melodies or motifs, some repeating throughout the film, or even bigger than life hero music, such as in Raiders of the Lost Art. What Mitchell has done here created some sounds to go along with the film. Most of the time, you’re probably not even conscious of what you’re hearing but I guarantee you, it is adding to the effect and your mood with what we’re watching on the screen. Whether it’s tension, terror, or even just simply anxiety, the sounds we hear amplify it even more.

During several tracks, we have long moments of sounds, both higher pitched and something lower in the background, like a rumbling brewing, waving a bit throughout, but all building this tension in your ears. Sometimes it might feel like a warning siren way, way off in the distance, subconsciously telling your brain something is wrong. While some may feel that writing a catchy “hero theme cue” might be tough, I have to think of adding a constant audible wave to intensify the scene can’t too easy either. But Mitchell has done it again with this score. When you get to track 6, we have this piano piece, that at first sounds beautiful and pleasant, but then, for me at least, I started to get a feeling of great sadness. But one of my favorite tracks is the remixing of the song Now You Know that is used at the very end of the film. It’s one of those that after seeing the film, every single time the track starts, you see that ending in your head. This track is another example of how a score can help bring back a visual as well as an emotional trigger in your brain, just by some music. I love when a score can do that.