John Murphy

John Murphy's work tends toward the experimental. He uses innovative electronic methods and thrashing guitars that in depth, compositional skill, and dramatic suitability far exceed superficially similar music in films such as the first Iron Man, The Social Network, and Inception. Despite his preference for this type of music, Murphy can also write for orchestra. He deftly wrote around the needle-drop songs in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels as well as Snatch. City by the Sea displays Murphy's ability to write in a wide variety of styles while Last House on the Left features his adeptness at horror. But Murphy's most fruitful collaboration has been with director Danny Boyle. In 28 Days Later, Murphy uses his signature guitars and eerie effects to create a bold new style of horror scoring. The sequel 28 Weeks Later extends this approach even further, adding an expanded instrumental palette and new melodic ideas. His tender score for Millions perfectly expresses the selfless quest of the two young brothers. In Sunshine, Murphy takes his experimental, electronic approach to create a surprisingly moving and emotional musical accompaniment to the sci-fi film. Murphy modified a couple of cues from 28 Days Later and Sunshine and added some new material for Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass. The contributions he and Henry Jackman made to the score are unexpectedly entertaining, rousing, and, at times, poignant. One can only hope that this talented composer will find more assignments and maybe reunite with Boyle. While A.R. Rahman's Bollywood style was appropriate (and not much more) for Slumdog Millionaire, one can only imagine what Murphy would have done with 127 Hours.

Armored
Anonymous Rejected Filmscore
City by the Sea

Kick-Ass** (with Henry Jackman, Marius De Vries, Ilan Eshkeri, Danny Elfman)

Last House on the Left

Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

Millions

Snatch

Sunshine*

28 Days Later

28 Weeks Later*