The Black Phone Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

1. Mark Korven's Moody Musical Score

And finally, tying everything together is a pulsing musical score from regular horror movie composer Mark Korven, whose prior genre credits include Cube, The Witch, and The Lighthouse.

Experimental industrial composer Korven makes shrewd use of ticking synths in a manner not entirely unlike the classic scores of John Carpenter, thoroughly enhancing the tension and unease of Derrickson's images in the process.

Korven's finest work in the film is heard during a fantastically ominous opening titles sequence, where grotty Super 8 footage of the Colorado suburb in which the story takes place is set to an offputting, metronomic electronic tick.

His music deserves a wealth of credit for helping elevate moments that, without such a searing soundscape, surely wouldn't hit nearly as hard.