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the script and had been thinking about it for a couple
months, so I pitched some ideas about what we could
accomplish with the score. After a couple more phone
interviews I got the call to pack my bags and head to
England.
Q // What were some initial ideas you presented for
the score?
A // Ben Lovett
I actually talked more about the score’s relationship
to the characters and the story more than anything
musically specific. There’s a tragedy that occurs in the
first few minutes of the movie which sets up the hiking
trip they take, and even though Robert [Paul Reid] is
only on screen for a short amount of time his relevance
to the overall story is very important. I felt like the score
had a role to play in keeping Robert with the group in the
forest, to keep him present and relevant in an emotional
sense. That became the foundation of a musical theme
exploring the group’s fractured relationship and how
that loss relates to the arc of our main character Luke
[Rafe Spall].
The horror movie structure is just a container to tell a
story about a guy losing friends and investigates the
ways our relationships with our peers change as we get
older. Ultimately what they encounter in the woods is, on
one hand, a classic horror movie trope to have fun with,
and on the other hand, it’s the physical embodiment of
Luke’s grief and fear about his moment of weakness, his
failed masculinity. From a metaphorical point of view,
it’s the haunting question he doesn’t want to face that
is stalking him. Essentially, what responsibility might he
have had in the event of his friend’s death?
Q // What does the character Robert sound like? How
is he represented in the score?
range that left us in the grade.
// FILM SCORE //
The Ritual may be a horror film on the outside, but
it’s really a film about tested friendship and changing
relationships. Just as that concept is woven into the
fabric of the story, that theme is also threaded musically
throughout composer Ben Lovett’s score. In the film, a
group of friends reunites for a hiking trip following the
death of their friend Robert, which was witnessed by a
member of their group. Guilt and suspicion challenge
their emotional ties while a supernatural force threatens
their lives.
Lovett, an award-winning composer who worked
with Bruckner on The Signal, says Robert’s theme is
fundamentally dierent from the orchestral-based
direction of the rest of the score. Its synthetic quality
stands in contrast to the acoustic instrumentation
that’s representative of the film’s natural setting.
Lovett’s approach to the score wasn’t merely based on
what’s presented on screen. It was also influenced by
the setting in which he wrote the score. Here, he shares
details about his approach and how the events of his
life influenced the creation of The Ritual’s soundtrack.
Q // How did you get involved in The Ritual?
A // Ben Lovett
The director [David Bruckner] and I go back a long
way. He and I met in college and we came up together,
cutting our teeth doing experimental indie films. It
had been a decade since we worked together. We last
collaborated on The Signal, which debuted at Sundance
in 2007. David was one of three directors on that film.
He and I had been looking for another opportunity to
work together on a feature ever since then. Timing
and circumstances aligned on The Ritual and created a
great opportunity for us to do that.
However, the catch was this entire production was
based in another country and David didn’t have the
authority to really hire anyone, so he presented the
idea to Andy Serkis and the other producers at The
Imaginarium. I got a call a few months later when I
happened to be passing through London on my way to
the World Soundtrack Awards, where I was nominated
for my score to Synchronicity. Timing is always such a
crucial ingredient in how these things go. Once we sat
down and talked about the movie I had already read