The Butterfly Effect: (Michael Suby) If the conundrums of
temporal mechanics and a time paradox or two typically drive you nuts, then watch
out for this one. The psychological thriller
The Butterfly Effect was
created by the same people who brought
Final Destination 2 to the screen,
and they seemed to enjoy twisting reality and parallel timelines in bizarre,
psychological ways. To some degree,
The Butterfly Effect is a another
variation on the reality-twisting tales of teen love gone awry, and perhaps you
have to scratch your head and wonder just how many times films like this will
continue to earn audience interest. Basically, a psychologically gifted, but
troubled young man discovers that he can travel back in time and exist with his
current mind in his earlier body and, therefore, alter prior events of his life
into his favor; but those temporal mechanics come back to haunt him as his
changes don't necessarily change the future for the better (didn't this kid ever
watch "Star Trek: Voyager"?). The filmmakers recognized that this particular
project would, like the events in the film, move in unpredictable ways, and they
went in search of a composer who could understand their warped sense of thinking
and adapt accordingly. Their early choice was Michael Suby, a young composer
fresh out of music school who had written for various unimpressive projects
through that time. Despite knowing Suby personally, the producers didn't present
his unknown name to the studio originally, but in a stroke of luck, the studio
had heard a demo recording from Suby specifically for
The Butterfly Effect
and he was hired to the delight of everyone on the project. The task of scoring
the film was troublesome because of the filmmakers' notions that instrumentation
should change in each parallel reality through which the main character in the
film travels. Themes and instrumentation established at the start wouldn't
necessarily exist later in the film because that original timeline was wiped out.
In the end, however, Suby ultimately created a score that was far less twisted
than that original idea had been. Much of the varying personality of the music in
the film rested on the shoulders of the numerous song placements that forced the
score into a smaller role.
The score did require several rewrites in post-production, but
the primary theme that Suby had written in the aforementioned demo did eventually
evolve into the score's identity and highlight. His work for
The Butterfly
Effect doesn't really vary from time shift to time shift as much as it could
have, with a consistent blend of orchestral and electronic music remaining steady
in quality, general harmony, and substance from start to end. The score varies
from somewhat aimless, electronically-enhanced dissonance in its moody portions
to brilliant outbursts of fully orchestral and choral melody. For a psychological
horror score, it achieves exactly what anyone could possibly want: thematic
beauty for its heart and a maintained level of interesting texture for its filler
cues. The recording of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is, as always, stellar in
its crystal clear, superb sound quality, and when combined with Suby's ability to
provide intriguing orchestral ideas in even the most tense of moments, the score
remains interesting at all times. A good example of this fresh use of orchestral
blending occurs in "Send You a Postcard," in which a propulsive, chopping string
rhythm of determination is accompanied by an intentionally off-pitch whining of
even higher strings. A sound effect that resembles an electronically echoed
barking dog is introduced in "Lenny's Explosive Flash" and carries forward into
several of the horror and action cues. The orchestral foundation is stronger than
the electronics, which twice in the score produce a more hip, contemporary rhythm
to accompany a "cooler" persona on screen. A piano is utilized to produce the
safe, suburban environment of family, and it is no coincidence that the piano's
innocence fades as the score progresses. The highlights of the score are the
orchestral statements of theme, such as the simple, chord-alternating Kayleigh
theme heard lovingly in "Kayleigh Loves Lenny" and heartbreakingly in "Kayleigh's
Funeral." Statements of the primary theme in the first and final cues are superb,
with a solo woodwind and boy soprano adding to the mystery and solitude of the
score. The rich orchestral depth of
The Butterfly Effect makes it a rare
thriller that is easy to enjoy on album, and a nicely rounded 44 minutes of only
Suby's material is provided on La-La Land Records' product. It was an impressive
debut for the composer into the mainstream of big screen cinema that unfortunate
did not yield similar success thereafter.
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The insert includes extensive information about the score's pre-production
and the film.
