The new horror/dark comedy 12 Hour Shift tells the story of a nurse(played by Angela Bettis) who is a drug addict and involved in a black market organ trafficking ring. On one particular evening the organ delivery is mishandled and Bettis’ nurse Mandy scrambles to find a replacement organ. Insanity and mayhem ensue.
The film is written and directed by Brea Grant, who you may remember from Showtime’s Dexter, NBCs Heroes, and the great indie horror film Beyond The Gates. Besides Angela Bettis, the film also stars Kit Williamson, Mick Foley, and David Arquette(who also produced the film with is wife.)
One other producer on the film is Matt Glass. Glass is also the film score composer, and he has created a score as chaotic and frantic as Nurse Mandy’s quest for a replacement kidney. He peppers the film with strings, drums, and voice that bring to mind both Jerry Goldsmith’s The Omen score and Joseph LoDuca’s The Evil Dead. But Glass adds touches of dance beats in all the chaos giving the sound and overall modern touch.
There’s a sense of urgency in this score, yet also a dark giddiness in the choral vocals and sort of madcap pace of the strings. Glass captures the mindset of the panicking Bettis, sort of that space between lucid thoughts and opioid haze she’s living in. You can almost imagine this beat up old radio that keeps flipping stations and glitching as you hear something like “Colpisci le Donne” or “Coffee”. “Lovers Quarrel” sounds like a cross between the Butthole Surfers and Brodsky Quartet.
When you have a movie that wants to balance darkness with humor while still allowing you to care about what happens to the characters onscreen, the score goes a long way to help with that. Matt Glass has made a harrowing, unpredictable, and jaunting rollercoaster of a film score for an equally unpredictable and madcap film. It locks in with just the right amount of insanity and restraint to keep us hoping that whole missing kidney thing works out for nurse Mandy.
Matt Glass’ 12 Hour Shift score is available now via Burning Witches Records with amazing album art by the incredible Ben Turner. Buy it here.
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