PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Pretty Lethal is a 2026 action thriller directed by Vicky Jewson and written by Kate Freund. The film stars Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, and Uma Thurman. It follows a dysfunctional ballet troupe forced to take shelter when their bus breaks down en route to a major competition. When a gang of armed men targets them, the dancers must use their training to fight back.
The score, composed by Paul Leonard-Morgan, was recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow. It blends lush orchestral textures with driving electronic elements, mirroring the film’s mix of action and dance. A standout is the original ballet sequence, a two-and-a-half-minute piece crafted precisely to match choreography.
Pop Horror sat down with Paul Leonard-Morgan to talk about building this unique sound.
Pretty Lethal: Blending Ballet and Action
PopHorror: I enjoyed it. So what was it like to blend the action and dance? And how did that dual element shape your approach to the score? Like, was there a real dance component that was a part of the score for you?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: So much fun. I mean, it’s just completely the film is batshit crazy. And someone described it earlier on as From Dusk Till Dawn, but without the vampires. With killer ballerinas instead.
Yeah, so I mean, you know, it’s obviously about five ballerinas who gradually get better and better. You got to work together as a team, it’s about girl power. But I think so many movies are very patronizing towards girl power, whereas this is just badassery. And they start getting better. They’re slashing people with blades on their ballet shoes.
So it’s not a typical kind of ballerina movie. But the dance is integral to the music, to the score. There are kind of three boss fight sequences in this. And every single moment, whether they’re hitting someone with their fist, or whether they’re hitting someone in the balls with their ballet shoes, every single moment is punctuated by the orchestra or electric guitar or a rock drummer or any of those moments.
A Cast That Bridges Generations
PopHorror: And the movie does have Uma Thurman. Who else is in the cast for the people out there to know?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: So when you score movies, you have Bradley Cooper looking down at you in your studio, or you have whoever. So you have Uma Thurman. I’m kind of going like, this is pretty cool.
And my daughter came in, who’s 13. And she goes, wow, what’s she doing on your movie? And I was like, pretty cool. She wasn’t talking about Uma. She was talking about Maddie Ziegler. And she knew Maddie Ziegler, who’d been in Dance Moms years ago, which is an iconic TV series that all the kids love.
So kind of watching her as she grew up. And she’s a bloody good dancer. So suddenly she’s their star. I mean, say Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, all these people, Avantika, who is like the new generation almost.
And when we were on the stage at South by Southwest, what I thought was interesting was Uma gave a fantastic speech about how the age that they are, early 20s, whatever, is the age that Uma was when she started. And she said she really had to fight as a woman actor to get either roles or to be taken seriously.
And she says what’s fantastic for her is seeing these badass girls on stage, all five of them, who are now completely bonded as friends. But it’s like a new generation coming through. And it is a case of can do.
Building Trust Through Music
PopHorror: Yeah, and the characters in Pretty Lethal didn’t all perfectly get along toward the beginning of the movie, but they’re kind of forced to do that. And that’s kind of like what happens in a lot of real life scenarios.
Paul Leonard-Morgan: Yeah, and Vicky Jewson, who’s the director, when she first approached me about this film, she sent me it. And I kind of watched 10 minutes and then watched another 10 minutes, another 10 minutes. I mean, I loved it.
But I think what was unusual about it was I had such a vision for what I wanted to do for the score straight off. I was like, this is a punk rock band meets cyberpunk electronica meets full on orchestra. And you’re going to gradually get more and more crazy as the score goes on.
But if you make the score crazy to begin with, then people just, it’s just weird. You got to get their trust as you go along with music. The same as you have to with the story.
So in the same way that the kids don’t get on to begin with and then they got to learn to be together as a team, by the end of it, they are bossing it in the fight sequences. And there’s a fantastic ballet at the end.
And kind of with the music, I said to Vicky, it’s quite the same. You’ve got to earn the trust. You don’t just go in with this crazy ass score to begin with. It’s a bit of orchestra to begin with, then a bit of synths, and then suddenly everything kicks in.
Recording in Glasgow
PopHorror: And you worked with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, right?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: So I’m Scottish. So I trained at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow years ago and I started producing bands. I was classically trained, produced bands, got into the whole band scene and then came full circle and started doing films.
What’s been so nice over the last four or five years is the RSNO have got this fantastic studio there in Glasgow. Abbey Road and Air are always very, very busy, so everyone’s always looking for a third place to record.
So suddenly the RSNO are getting loads of work from my mates in LA as well. And I’m doing them like this little PDF and saying, oh God, they’re brilliant. But also the food’s amazing in Glasgow. The pubs are amazing. It’s the whole experience.
But the RSNO are phenomenal. They’re fantastic musicians. We’ve got a beautiful studio. We had a great time.
Scoring to Choreography
PopHorror:When you had the ballet parts of Pretty Lethal, did you incorporate the choreography into the score?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: So it’s twofold. There are three fight sequences, and it was literally choreographed to every single beat. Every kick, every hit, everything.
But the last sequence of the entire film is basically a two-minute ballet. The film’s finished, the girls are saved, and they get to this dance competition. So I can’t think of another film where you get to write a two-minute ballet and they are literally performing to my music. I mean, it’s just amazing.
PopHorror: And how did you balance honoring the original Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky with making it feel fresh?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: There are two routes you could go down. One is to do a dance remix of it. I was like, it’s a bit cheesy. I don’t want to do that.
So I had to re-record it with a click track, which classical music doesn’t usually use. I had to beat match every single part because they’d filmed it already. But it gave us an opportunity to add little flourishes.
I had to go and study the Tchaikovsky scores to find out exactly how he orchestrated it, and then kind of copy that but also do my own thing.
Finding Inspiration in Dance
PopHorror: Did you study ballerina culture at all in creating the score?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: It’s a really good question. The only job I’ve ever had was playing piano in a dance school when I was 18, 19. So I’d be playing everything as ballet or tap music for years.
Then about two and a half years ago, I needed a month off just to rediscover my style. So I wrote an album for piano and cello. And dancers from around the world started getting in touch saying, hey, you could choreograph to this.
So when Vicky phoned up and asked if I’d done dance before, I suddenly had all these videos. But I said, that’s not what I want to do with your film. It’s going to be this crazy ride. It’s a punk attitude that the girls have, and that’s the soundtrack.
But it was bizarre how it all lined up.
Experimentation and Sound Design
PopHorror: What sort of unique techniques did you apply to this score?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: So many. With the orchestra, I did a lot of weird effects, like glissandi that look like sine waves on the score. There’s a title card about 15 minutes in where the orchestra just goes completely wild for seven seconds. And at the same time I’ve got all my weird electronica going. It sounds bizarre, but together it works.
The craziest thing was using a Roli keyboard. It lets you slide between notes, detune things, change velocity just by moving your fingers. I was trying to come up with a celeste sound, but instead I detuned it and dropped it two octaves. It became creepy. That led to the main motif.
Then I picked up a saw and a bow and started playing the theme on that. Same with whistling, harmonica, detuned violin. That’s the stuff that puts you on edge.
The Human Touch in Music
PopHorror: So there’s a musical saw involved?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: Oh yeah. And I can’t play. That’s the joyful thing. It’s unprofessional. But it introduces humanity. You can detune it, play it badly, but it brings texture you won’t get from a computer.
We have all these tools now, but everything can start sounding the same. If you just pick up a guitar or violin, it introduces air into the soundtrack. You’re never going to recreate that combination of orchestra, band, and weird instruments with AI. It’s what’s going on in your head.
Audience Reactions and Final Thoughts
PopHorror: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Paul Leonard-Morgan: We premiered at South by Southwest. There were 1,100 people in the theater. People were cheering during the fight sequences, clapping, reacting in the middle of the film.
Some films try to be very arty, some very commercial. This one is kind of everything. It’s like The Goonies meets 28 Days Later meets From Dusk Till Dawn.
But what was lovely was people leaving the theater going, that was just a really fun ride.
PopHorror: Well, thanks for spending time here talking with me, and check out Pretty Lethal, everybody.
Paul Leonard-Morgan: Thanks so much.
