April 14, 2022
MSM Releases THE EXORCISM OF GOD Soundtrack – Music by Elik Álvarez / Yoncarlos Medina
THE EXORCISM OF GOD is a 2021 American-Mexican supernatural horror drama directed by Alejandro Hidalgo and starring Will Beinbrink, María Gabriela de Faría and Joseph Marcell, released by Saban Films (USA, UK, Australia etc). The film follows an American priest working in Mexico who becomes possessed during an exorcism and ends up committing a terrible act. Eighteen years later, the consequences of his sin come back to haunt him, unleashing the greatest battle within.
The film has been scored by composers Elik Álvarez and Yoncarlos Medina. Elik Álvarez is a Venezuelan-born composer based in Los Angeles, known for scoring many of Sir David Attenborough’s groundbreaking mini-series. He has also worked on the scores of animated pictures like TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, YUGIOH! and G.I JOE SIGMA 6. His score for the baseball romantic comedy TAKE ME OUT has been released as a digital soundtrack by Swedish label MovieScore Media. Yoncarlos Medina known for scoring Alejandro Hidalgo’s box office success THE HOUSE AT THE END OF TIME (the most watched Venezuelan film), which received the award for Best Soundtrack of the ELCO Festival (2013). With Álvarez in Los Angeles and Yoncarlos in Caracas, Venezuela, the composers kept in touch through Zoom throughout the scoring process as they collectively constructed the film’s score.
They discussed with the director how they should create “a distinctive score that effectively underlines the wildest ride between good and evil,” the composers described on the MSM website. “Part of this ride presents a deep exploration of sin and a suffocating feeling of guilt, for which we decided to bring on board music programmer Cosme Liccardo and produce disturbing textures and intricate percussive sounds created from a variety of rare musical instruments that were later implemented in the score. At the same time, we invited multidisciplinary artist Leonor Lanza to lend her extravagant and powerful voice to reinforce the presence of the devil and its battle against God. As the story develops, self-condemnation is often blended with a profound search for forgiveness, for this, we wrote a bold dramatic theme masterfully performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.”
For their immersive orchestral score, the composers featured vocals, solo violin, and a large number of organic textures and processed sounds, as well as a 40-piece string ensemble which was performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. In an interview with Jon Mansell on MovieMusicInternational, Álvarez described: “When we first sat down with Alejandro to discuss the music for the Exorcism of God, he was very precise about how he wanted the audience to perceive the internal conflict that the main characters had to cope with as the story develops. He also described how the presence of evil, sin, and forgiveness were the dramatic core elements of the film… That being said, we all agreed that the main purpose for us was to create a score that gives THE EXORCISM OF GOD its own musical identity. We first came out with the idea of using vocals chants and vocal effects to then be digitally manipulated in order to create very disturbingly ‘dark’ sounds. We wanted those sounds to feel as if they were coming from hell.” Read more at MovieMusicInternational.
For more details about the score, its composers, to sample music, or to order, see MovieScore Media.
Listen to the score’s opening track:
