Is ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ the greatest contemporary horror soundtrack?
One staple of classic horror that the genre’s modern iterations have tended to shy away from is the incorporation of a recurring motif that’s tied to either a certain character or a particularly impactful scene, even though history has shown that it’s nothing less than iconic when deployed correctly.
Bernard Herrmann’s screeching strings are an integral part of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, John Williams’ two-note theme for Jaws is as ominous as the shark itself, while John Carpenter’s Halloween mined Michael Myers’ signature bars for decades, to say nothing of Friday the 13th‘s ‘ch-ch-ch ha-ha-ha’ or The Exorcist‘s haunting tubular bells.
The ten-film Saw saga has at least made use of Charlie Couser’s ‘Hello Zepp’ throughout its entire existence, but while there are plenty of recent horror hits to boast a memorable orchestral accompaniment, John Murphy’s ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ stands alone.
As both intrinsically tied to the property it was created for and a chilling piece of music deployed at the perfect moments, it seamlessly furthers both the narrative and the despair of those living in the world of 28 Days Later and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later.
That makes it all the more ironic that the composer’s initial reaction was one of trepidation. “The first cut I saw was raw, very visceral, but it was powerful. I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to score this film without taking the edge away?'” he admitted to The Telegraph before a helpful hint from director Danny Boyle sent him on his way.
“Then Danny had the idea of the score being like detritus. Degraded fragments of forgotten music floating around the background of the movie,” he explained. “I started to write random snippets of music, which I would play back through an old modded Bakelite radio. Some of it turned out great, but it was obvious that the film deserved more.”
The score is sparse in both of the 28 Days films, but when the full might of ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ is deployed for the first time, it hits even harder. It’s only utilised once, but the increasing atmosphere and bombast is in perfect synchronicity with Cillian Murphy’s Jim as he frantically searches an abandoned house for Naomie Harris’ Selena and Megan Burns’ Hannah, slaughtering the uninfected soldiers as two of their feral number embark on a rampage within the confines of the building.
It proved so impactful that not only was ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ repurposed for the staggering opening sequence of 28 Weeks Later, it was used again in an altered version when the army begins laying waste to District One and for a third time when the survivors fly out across the English Channel at the end of the story.
The in-development 28 Years Later is nigh-on guaranteed to feature the track in one form or another, and that’s not just because it’s so indelibly linked to the first two. While that’s entirely true, ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ also endures as one of the finest tracks composed for any horror movie in decades, remaining as capable as ever of sending a chill down the spine.
