Sign up to FREE email alerts from Mirror - celebs Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

From spooky and eerie to dark, tension-building drones, music can be so evocative that we find ourselves covering our eyes long before the jump scares start.

A well-timed screech or low hum can create the perfect trigger for knowing 'something terrible is about to happen'.

But there are two schools of thought when it comes to film music.

Some say you should barely notice it, while others are attuned to every clashing note.

Being a composer, it's not surprising Ben Lovett says he’s always been firmly in the latter camp.

“Crew members shaking trees off camera will only get you so far, you have to meet that with a specific emotion.

“Well before you ever see it, you should have a sense that it's there, the feeling of a lurking menace," he says.

Lovett should know, he’s the man behind the haunting soundtrack to Netflix’s latest horror film The Ritual.

What's The Ritual about?

The movie follows four young men who after the sudden, violent death of their best mate reunite for a hike through the Scandinavian wilderness.

Figuring the best route will take them straight through a forest, the foursome set off only to be left isolated from the world and stumble into a series of increasingly ill omens - from a bear hanging in a tree to strange symbols carved in the wood - and things go from bad to worse.

Mood music

But how do you match the music to such a complex story?

According to Lovett, he drew from his own experience with loneliness in order to create an unending sense of dread in The Ritual.

“I had my own sort of uncharted trip through the wilderness, so to speak - landing in London, a city where I didn't know anyone, didn't have a network of people to rely on and had to kind of find my way through it.

“It was a tight schedule too and on top of not knowing anyone, there was this kind of constant panic of 'how the hell am I going to get all this done?'

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

How it got made

“I was just working straight for about 60 days in a row,” he reveals.

However, enduring the solitude seems to have paid off and listening back to it, Lovett says he is pleased with the results.

“I'm really happy with what turned out. I don't just feel like it was an accomplishment within those circumstances - I feel like I've managed to create a work that will be at the top of my list for some time now.”

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, the young composer remains humble, saying he is more interested in seeing how his work is received by fans.

“The best part is to sit down in a theatre and see other people who don't know anything about it just react to it.

“We absolutely killed ourselves trying to get this thing to be as good as it could be in that little window of time we had.

“You never really see a movie, you just see all these things you're trying to fix and repair. You forget that you made it.

“So to get to see it on a screen and it working for an audience is very satisfying.”

*The Ritual is available on Netflix from February 9.