Whispers in the Dark: Score Breakdown

Short Film available on YouTube. Written for the University of Hertfordshire. (2026)

1. Introduction

Whispers in the Dark is a psychological thriller that follows Jack as his unresolved guilt toward an unnamed woman manifests as a state of psychosis. This inner collapse is externalised through two symbolic figures. Firstly, a group of animal-masked characters who represent the voices in Jack’s head, embodying his primal instincts and fractured conscience. Secondly, a mummified woman, the physicalisation of the woman Jack has harmed. Together, these figures form a psychological landscape in which guilt, denial and self-judgment coexist.

Narratively, the film unfolds as a tightly constructed montage, rapidly cross-cutting between Jack, his animal-masked conscience, and the mummified woman. These images are unified by dialogue led by the masked figures, which imposes a sense of order and narrative coherence onto an otherwise unstable mental state. While the film employs red, black, and white colour grading and aggressive visuals to convey Jack’s distress, this structure paradoxically produces a controlled and intelligible rhythm, leaving a notable absence of chaos at a sensory level.

In response, the core concept of my score is to assume the role of that missing chaos. Rather than reinforcing the film’s visual and narrative order, the music is designed to disrupt it, introducing sonic instability and psychological unrest. The score functions as an additional internal voice — uncontrolled, invasive and volatile — suggesting that alongside his torment, Jack is subjected to a deeper, more amorphous breakdown that resists clarity and resolution.

2. Theoretical Framework

The development of the score’s theoretical framework emerged through the departure from an initially conventional approach. My first spotting session was methodical, drawing on references such as Gotham’s Penguin Strikes (Revell and Russo, 2014). These references suggested a coherent, psychologically driven musical language. However, once composition began, it became clear that this aesthetic did not integrate organically with the film. The issue was not stylistic incompatibility, but the limited time to develop ideas through a thematic approach. Thus, the references’ coherence against the film’s intensity prompted experimentation.

There, I identified modal and non-tonal resources capable of expressing the chaos of Jack’s mind. These explorations led me to contemporary works such as Jerskin Fendrix and The Nun (2018), which prioritise texture, tension, and perceptual unease over melodic clarity. Because this compositional language was relatively unfamiliar to me, it became essential to articulate a clear theoretical framework before proceeding, ensuring that all creative decisions remained aligned with the score’s conceptual purpose: functioning as Jack’s uncontrolled, chaotic voice.

At the core of this framework is Meta-Diegesis (Chion, 2019), which operates as the primary connective principle. The score exists as an extension of Jack’s inner world, articulating psychological states that neither dialogue nor image can fully express. Within this meta-diegetic space, two additional techniques are employed. Firstly, ABC Hits and subtle Synchresis establish a temporal and perceptual bond between sound and image, grounding the score within the film’s rhythm without stabilising it emotionally. Secondly, Acousmêtre (Chion, 2019), used in both Omnipotent and Immortal forms, allows the music to function as a disembodied, ever-present presence, reinforcing its role as an inescapable psychological force.

To realise these techniques, the score uses three elements: form, timbre and harmony. Form governs the score’s development; timbre establishes an unstable texture; and harmony abandons a fixed tonal centre, creating a sense of disorientation and continual drift. Together, these elements enable the score to embody the chaos central to Jack’s psychosis.

3. Application to Context

To effectively explore the application of the theoretical framework to my compositional approach, I’ll describe musical key decisions through the film's chronological order.

3.1. Act One

Act One opens with a thunderstorm that immediately establishes a sense of danger and instability. As the thunder fades and rain persists, an unidentified character turns off a lamp and sits alone in the dark, forming a brief prologue whose narrative function is to situate the audience in an ominous, unstable environment. At this stage, the score deliberately withholds Meta-Diegetic material. Because the film has not yet identified who is being explored, the score’s form prioritises atmosphere, allowing the setting to take precedence.

So, rather than entering Jack’s mind, the music aligns itself with the diegetic world timbrally. Spectral shaping mirrors environmental sounds, and the score operates within Omnipotent Acousmêtre: an unseen, disembodied presence controlling the camera and audience’s eyes. The low electric cello drop at 00:01:22 functions as a subterranean driver imitating distant thunder, while high woodwind gestures at 00:02:00 shimmer in parallel with the rainfall. The absence of a harmonic centre reinforces the impression that these sounds imply presence rather than musical intention, a quality further emphasised by the brass risers at 00:07:12.

Synchresis plays a key role when the lamp is switched off, synchronising the image and sound’s rhythm so that music and setting appear to merge into a single entity. As the prologue concludes, rising and falling string tremolos culminate in a clear Hit Point at 00:18:00, marked by a sustained note that leaves the character suspended in darkness. Thus, in Act One, Acousmêtre, Hit Points and Synchresis bind image and sound, creating an atmosphere of contained tension and poised to collapse.

3.2. Act Two

Following Act One, a bridge reveals the mummified woman and Jack staring into a red mirror. Meta-Diegetic immersion begins here: rolling timpani without high frequencies embody the rumble of Jack’s mind, while a string descent pulls the film into his psychological space.

Act Two (00:27:07 to 00:49:07) centres on Jack’s confrontation with the internal voices that insist on their inescapability. To establish the chaotic presence embodied by the score, its formal design centres on a single recurring motif: descending lines. These appear across instrumental families: woodwinds at 00:32:17, brass at 00:34:05, and strings at 00:40:00, collectively reinforcing the sense of psychological decline. This persistent downward motion creates the illusion of descent, thereby counterbalancing the rapid visual montage by generating anticipation and perceptually slowing the scene's pacing.

Meta-Diegetic immersion is further intensified through carefully placed Hit Points that bind sound and image. Descending gestures coincide with shifts in visual space, notably at the start of the act (00:27:07) and at 00:37:07, where a change in the score’s textural foundation accompanies Jack’s movement away from the mirror. The most critical moment occurs at 00:45:15, when the sharp high-string stabs and sub-bass attacks synchronise with the mummified woman’s movement in a moment of Synchresis. Here, the score suggests Jack’s mind is violently confronting itself, as if repeatedly pierced by the memory of his actions. In the absence of a tonal centre, these timbral and textural shifts provide vital structural markers, allowing the score’s chaos to remain intelligible rather than diffuse.

Timbre is also employed to articulate Jack’s perceived relationships and internal power dynamics. High woodwinds, traditionally associated with fragility and vulnerability, accompany the mummified woman at 00:32:00. This is immediately contrasted with forceful brass stabs as Jack faces his reflection at 00:34:10, asserting dominance within his psychological hierarchy.

Overall, Act Two functions as an extended explosion of the score’s Meta-Diegetic role. The descending motif communicates deterioration while regulating pace, Hit Points and Synchresis fuse image and sound into a unified psychological experience, and timbral contrasts map Jack’s fractured mind, deepening the audience’s immersion in his mental collapse.

3.3. Act Three

Act Three (00:49:07 to 01:25:00) depicts the final confrontation between Jack and his inner voices, as they force him to acknowledge his actions and assert the inescapability of his guilt. Narratively, this act functions as the psychological point of no return, and the score responds by intensifying its Meta-Diegetic presence in preparation for the climax.

Building on the language established in Act Two, descending lines continue to drive the narrative downward while regulating the scene’s pace. Timbral associations remain consistent: at 00:50:25, a high woodwind Hit Point marks the mummified woman’s exit from the frame, immediately followed by a descending brass gesture as Jack reappears alongside one of his animal-masked voices. These transitions reinforce the continuity between visual shifts and Jack’s collapse, maintaining the illusion that image and sound come from the same source.

However, unlike the constant escalation of Act Two, Act Three introduces moments of restraint. When the voices state, “There’s no running from your sins, Jack,” at 00:53:25, all stabs and descending motifs abruptly withdraw. What remains is the score’s foundational texture: a hybrid shepherd’s tone constructed from filtered rolling timpani, strings and brass. This reduction isolates Jack within a sparse sonic environment, punctuated only by Synchretic Hit Points aligned with the mummified woman’s sharp, tortured movements. These gestures recall earlier moments of Synchresis from Act Two, but are now stretched and suspended, gradually accumulating tension toward the fade-out.

The absence of descending material here is intentional. By removing the primary signifier of deterioration, the score mirrors Jack’s emotional isolation, transforming the chaotic internal voice into a sense of oppressive loneliness as he confronts his demons alone. When the voices finally categorise Jack as an animal (01:14:00), collapsing the distinction between him and his inner voices, the music returns at full intensity. Blending with the thunder, the score abandons downward motion entirely: second violins and violas sustain a destabilised pitch with subtle blending, while first violins execute upward slides. This reversal produces a distorted release, signalling not resolution, but the triumph of Jack’s demons over his remaining sanity.

3.4. Credits

To conclude, as the credits begin at 01:25:00, rolling timpani persists alongside the twinkling woodwinds and electric cello from the opening, sustaining the storm’s presence musically, developing Immortal Acousmêtre. This is further reinforced by the mummified woman’s string stabs, recalling the film’s most imposing visuals and leaving a lingering, unsettling impression.

4. Critical Evaluation and Conclusion

Despite early challenges in identifying an appropriate musical style due to the film’s pace, the development and execution of a clear Theoretical Framework enabled the score to align closely with the narrative and visual style.

Analysing contemporary scores, such as Jerskin Fendrix’s Poor Things (2023), highlighted the effectiveness of non-traditional techniques — textural motifs, atonality and harmonic ambiguity — in conveying psychological tension and character development. Simultaneously, studying traditional horror scores, such as The Nun (2018), clarified genre clichés, informing decisions about when to subvert or adapt them. For instance, descending lines were employed as a recurring motif rather than a simple tension device, giving the score a conceptual anchor.

Grounding the composition in a single primary technique, Meta-Diegetic music, while complementing it with Synchresis, Hit Points and forms of Acousmêtre, established a coherent musical identity. This approach ensured all elements served a unique purpose: representing Jack’s chaos. Incidental occurrences of Empathetic Music (Chion, 2019) or Contrapuntual Montage (Chion, 2019) emerged without intent, hence why they haven’t been analysed.

If approached again, I would prioritise studying the stereo placement and density of dialogue, which occupies hard left and right, and centre channels, leaving limited space for music without frequency or timbral clashes. Greater attention to dialogue would reduce mixing challenges, ensuring the music consistently complements rather than competes with it. Despite these constraints, careful mixing achieved a balanced sound, even when employing automated panning to create a spiralling, disorienting effect in some instruments.

Overall, the score succeeds in its purpose. Assuming the role of an invasive, unpredictable, and chaotic voice, it amplifies Jack’s psychological deterioration and reinforces the impact of the masked figures and mummified woman. The music introduces emotional and perceptual tension that the visuals and dialogue alone couldn't achieve, creating a controlled chaos that enhances narrative engagement while maintaining structural coherence.

Scoring Whispers in the Dark taught me the power of consciously reflecting on the marriage of image and sound and of focusing a score through other storytelling elements, rather than through plot, such as a character. It demonstrated the value of establishing a framework grounded in intent and existing techniques, and it is now a natural part of my creative process.

From Whispers in the Dark by the CueTube (2024)

Chion, M. (2019). Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press.

Fendrix, J. (2023). Poor Things (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Milan Records. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxZ24jVxpJM&list=PLRW80bBvVD3Vygrzj1ey-NUrY_3AhPDXC.

Gotham: Season One. (2014). Fox.

Korzeniowski, A. (2018). The Nun (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). WaterTower Music. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40CtH5ierHk&list=PLohYzz4btpaRHBO8RmY-u1skJhXdsHdS8.

Revell, G. and Russo, D.E. (2018). Gotham: Season One (Original Television Soundtrack). WaterTower Music Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVjWkGAgbCY&list=OLAK5uy_kFSyhEHwtu3Is-Kj7TcEFCcOEsMNimUNs.

Revell, G. and Russo, D.E. (2018). Penguin Strikes (Original Television Soundtrack). WaterTower Music Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1rYikVN5I.