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My Sonic Prayers Answered! Chris Ridenhour to Score A Haunting in Salem!

I've spoken a little bit about Asylum composer Chris Ridenhour of late, the man responsible for an astonishing 28 scores for our favorite independent studio. Well, that number gets slightly more impressive rolling over to 29, as Ridenhour has officially been given the go ahead to score A Haunting in Salem, The Asylum's next horror flick, out this August 23rd from director Shane Van Dyke and a script by me.

It should be no secret by now that I'm totally stoked by this news. Ridenhour's scores are the icing on every Asylum film he's touched, a sweet, thrilling rush that amplifies every emotion. I thought he might get the job - he is their number one guy, after all - so I revisited the work he did for Mark Atkins' Haunting of Winchester House, and loved how it worked with the story. This is awesome news and sure to result in some creeping orchestration I'll be playing every Halloween for the rest of my life.

Music's a pretty important part of the writing process to me, and when I heard Ridenhour got the gig, it got me thinking about the music I listened to while composing the script. I make a point of lining up music whose mood I think fits the tone that I'm writing for, but I don't want that music to be distracting, rather an intense background, a sonic catalyst that enables me to tune out everything else. Therefore, when writing, I only listen to instrumental music. For Salem, that music - of course - had to be kinda dark. So if anyone's interested, below's a list of albums I had on repeat while writing and editing A Haunting in Salem:


  • This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain
  • Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
  • Trent Reznor/Atticus Finch - Original Score to The Social Network
  • Nick Cave/Warren Ellis - Original Score to The Road
  • Saxon Shore - Four Months of Darkness
  • Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun and  ( )  
  • God Is An Astronaut - All is Violent, All is Bright
  • Caspian - The Four Trees
  • Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
So there you have it, a little sonic snapshot into my creative process. As though any of you were wondering.

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