Still here? Good. Those who’ve seen “Knock at the Cabin” know just how apocalyptic things get as the story progresses. Though initially skeptical of Dave Bautista’s Leonard and his very motivated home-invading compatriots who believe the end of the world is coming, the tightknit family of Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) must come to terms with the evidence right before their eyes. Forced to either kill one of their own to save the day or watch helplessly as the four strangers murder one of themselves in a ritual sacrifice to unleash biblical plagues, the consequences are as all-consuming as it gets.
That’s exactly what composer Herdís Stefánsdóttir felt eager to dig into in a recent conversation with /Film’s Jack Giroux. When asked about how she went about composing doomsday for the film, Stefánsdóttir responded:
“Well, for this particular movie, I am going to the Book of Revelations. I was reading a lot about that. The angels, it’s the doomsday prophecy from the Old Testament. There were seven angels, and for each plague that was to be unleashed for humankind, an angel would blow [a horn]. I was referencing the biblical story in the score, but not until later, because we couldn’t give it up. For example, before they sacrifice [Rupert Grint’s character] Redmond, there’s a knocking sound, and I make it knock seven times. The numbers that I’m using, I’m really intentionally — nobody’s going to know that I’m referencing this prophecy from the Old Testament.”
Talk about a deep cut. As obvious as the biblical parallels may seem on-screen, it’s likely that viewers never would’ve guessed that even the tiniest details in the score were in reference to the same theme.