During the opening pre-credits scene the first five minutes has no music as introductions are made and Mr Mehta, an architect, is to stay at a mansion to work on the designs for a new hotel that will be its replacement. When Mr. Mehta is working late at night alone in the mansion the first minimalistic music is introduced in the form of high pitched, scratching strings which gradually crescendo as the tension builds, the tension is suddenly broken by a clock chiming much louder than the music. Mr. Mehta begins looking around the mansion further bringing the swelling high pitched strings back with a lower pitched ostinato repeating, this is when he begins to hear someone screaming from upstairs, as Mr. Mehta investigates the noise he becomes trapped in the staircase at which point percussion is added bringing the tension to a head.
In the opening scene we hear some sparse strumming of a sitar over some gentle strings while Arjun is praying. The music changes to Beethoven’s Fur Elise that Lisa is playing on the piano this weaving of diegetic and non-diegetic music carries while Arjun is writing a letter to Lisa leading then to a full string melody to end the scene.
In the next scene Arjun and Lisa are ambushed by Arjun’s family. The strings mount as the family set fire to the car to kill Lisa, Arjun manages to fight off his family, bringing in a pulsing bass line within the strings and the melody ascending in pitch informing the urgency of the scene.
After this first act, a montage scene begins accompanied by a musical number commonplace in Indian cinema, this technique is used throughout the film to break up the acts.
The couple arrive at the house and an intense melody plays, foreshadowing the horror that awaits them.
During the couple’s first night in the mansion Lisa wakes up to hear the same screaming from the intro scene, and the high strings begin to build as she looks around the house, though this time there are sounds that begin to mirror Lisa’s movements.
The next day as she brings up the subject to Balwant, the caretaker, there are low pitched bass swells accompanying her questions regarding a presence in the mansion, this technique is used to great effect portraying Lisa’s unease as Balwant is obviously hiding something.
Again Lisa begins to look around the mansion to the same high strings, finding that a previously locked door is now open, inside she comes across a piano, she begins to play and as she does we get a crescendo of intense strings and horns again mixing the non-diegetic and diegetic sounds. While the music plays, the imagery suggests the presence is moving towards the mansion, as if summoned by the music. Lisa runs outside triggering fast paced strings as she chases the presence to no avail. Upon Arjun’s return the door is again locked as if it had never been open.
During the next night Lisa has fallen asleep next to a gramophone, upon waking she takes the needle off of the record, but as she leaves the room a sudden and loud outburst of Beethoven’s fifth symphony blasts from the gramophone, as Lisa returns and removes the needle once again the music begins to play. She removes the needle for a third time and in the silence begins to hear her name being whispered through the horn of the gramophone. This time when Lisa runs through the mansion we are not met with the same quiet tense strings from that of previous nights, but rather a loud orchestral movement with weaving horn and string melodies.
Another montage and musical number introduces the next act, in which the music grows in intensity on the night that Lisa is awoken and attacked by the demonic presence, a chase then begins, re-introducing the fast melody heard earlier when Lisa was chasing the presence, but this time she is running from the presence, until it finally catches her and the music suddenly stops and we are left with Lisa’s scream echoing through the otherwise silent house.
After Father Thomas visits the now possessed Lisa, they have a brief exchange in which the music takes a secondary role, staying quite low in the background while Lisa shouts at the priest. We are then greeted with a gentle melody as Lisa is admitted to hospital, until again it is returned to the large intense orchestral score while Lisa confronts the doctor.
Again a montage and musical number is played out to end this act and move onto the next, which deals with the history of the mansion.
During the flashback sequence the music becomes minimal and sparse until Radha runs to the well to discover Mother Kesar’s body, when a higher and more staccato piece is played in substitute of the earlier lower chase music.
We are again greeted with a final montage and musical number to bring in the final act.
In the final act, the exorcism takes place, beginning with minimal music as the tension builds and as Lisa breaks from her binds, the music becomes heavily percussive and then cutting out to single repeated piano notes.
As Arjun and the priest search around the mansion the music builds from percussive into the loud strings and horns this time accompanied by choral vocals representative of the religious ritual being performed. The choral vocals eventually drop out but the music keeps building until Arjun begins his prayers from his introduction of the film, a constant cacophonous percussive rhythm intertwines with the prayer and becomes louder and louder as Arjun goes from speaking to shouting the words of the prayer.
The use of crescendo throughout the film works perfectly to build the tension of each act, especially with the slow build of each night leading to Lisa’s possession starting quite minimalistic and adding greater instrumentation and more intricate melodies with each night that passes, this theme progresses through the film with the crescendos building to a cacophonous pulsing rhythm in the final act. Also the use of mixing the non-diegetic and diegetic music helps to immerse the viewer and creates an empathy for the characters.
Due to the films North Yorkshire location and 1920 time period mixed with the orchestral score makes it feel like a Hammer Horror version of the exorcist. I highly recommend giving this film a watch and a listen.
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