Directed by Jonathan King (Black Sheep) and based on the best-selling novel by Maurice Gee, horror adventure Under the Mountain has a wild and energetic orchestral score by New Zealand's Victoria Kelly. Performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the score for this dark suspense and action-filled adventure, is a huge work where a number of strong themes and ideas - and truly top-notch orchestrations - makes for an exciting Hollywood style film score. If you are a fan of big scores such as David Arnold's Godzilla and John Williams's Jurassic Park, this one is for you...

The soundtrack for Under the Mountain is a good solid score which totally took me by surprise. The press information revealed that fans of David Arnold and John Williams's work would find much to enjoy here. At first alarm bells rang - as I imagined composer Victoria Kelly carefully paying homage to two of Hollywood's hottest talents rather than presenting music of her own composition.

Thankfully there is very little here that you'll have heard anywhere before. Sure, there are the odd Williams's and Arnold beats, but not really enough to say that they were inspirational. No, what we have here is a beautifully original work that stands on its own two feet against the very best that Hollywood has to offer.

While the press information refers to Arnold's score for Godzilla (a soundtrack I have to admit to having not heard) I did pick out a few references to Arnold's score for Independence Day. In fact the end segment of 'Opening Credits' borrows almost note for note from one segment of Arnold's work. This is also hinted at again in 'Let's Go Home'.

Likewise, tracks including 'Now You Run' and 'End Credits' will obviously be likened to Williams's score for Jurassic Park. But in all fairness, what Kelly has done is craft a soundtrack that is very much her own - and for that she should be highly praised.

The end result is an incredibly impressive score from a composer who is destined to become a well respected name in soundtracks.

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Darren Rea