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Freddy vs. Jason: (Graeme Revell) The
Nightmare on Elm
Street and
Friday the 13th movies have held loyal cult audiences since
1980, practically inventing the teenage slasher genre and opening the doors for
more modern incarnations like
Scream and
I Know What You Did Last
Summer. Despite a badly fading interest in the most recent films in both
original horror franchises, New Line Cinema offered the kind of merged equation
that led to similar combinations of familiar foes in other franchises. Fans found
the prospect of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees together in the same film to be
irresistible, and with Freddy resurrecting Jason and then battling him over
frightened teenage victims to slay (it never hurts for these films to have an
abundance of attractive meat to feed to their monsters), audiences propelled
Freddy vs. Jason to the number one spot atop the box office earnings list
for a week in the late summer season of 2003. The film exceeded most expectations
by enthusiasts of the two franchises, and so did the score by Graeme Revell. With
these two series running as long as they had been, it was difficult to maintain any
kind of continuity in relation to their music. They had never been known for their
superior scores, with only the later generation of offspring series eventually
handled by more popular composers of the horror genre (such as Marco Beltrami, John
Debney, and John Frizzell). Himself no stranger to this genre, Graeme Revell had
composed for his fair share of slasher-type films in his career. Most film music
collectors will likely recall Revell's space-age horror scores, but his affiliation
with cult, slasher thrillers here on Earth included
Bride of Chucky, which
shared director Ronny Yu with
Freddy vs. Jason. Unlike the
Halloween
series, for which John Carpenter wrote a long-lasting piano theme that existed in
the minds of viewers for twenty years, neither
Nightmare on Elm Street nor
Friday the 13th maintained the same kind of heightened musical identity.
Thus, Revell was presented a clean slate with which to begin for
Freddy vs.
Jason. His response to the concepts was predictable, although the result was,
like the film, a little better than expected.
Revell manages to reference the earlier scores in the franchises
by simply utilizing nearly every slasher/horror genre music cliche in the book. All
of the instruments in the ensemble are emphasized throughout the score in their
most stereotypically frightened performance aspects, but Revell allows that
grouping of expected sounds to take on a greater life by pumping up the volume with
the full City of Prague Philharmonic ensemble. Revell collectors are accustomed to
hearing him incorporate bizarre instrumentation or vocals into his scores
(sometimes having nothing to do with the musical genre at hand), but for
Freddy
vs. Jason, Revell's creativity is held within the expected boundaries of the
genre. A piano rumbles elegantly in that balance between urban comfort and
impending doom. Deep bass strings carry motifs ominously as victims are being
stalked. A pounding timpani strikes as the villain approaches in menacing fashion.
Loud brass shrieks, slurring on the opening edge in Don Davis methodology,
accompany a sudden attack. Quivering violins mark the moments when a victim looks
around a corner in terror. A solo woodwind swirls in the mist when it looks as
though nothing is out there. An electric guitar explodes with power during
frightening dream sequences. An array of synthesized, metallic grinding noises,
with distorted bells tolling, crashes through the murky underscore. Distorted
vocals from both little children and the voices of the villains themselves are
mixed into the disharmony, ranging in personality from innocent singing to chants
of "die, die, die." When you throw all of these elements together, you have a
well-executed horror score. The overall product is enhanced by a generous quantity
of action music, usually accompanying the two villains' battles with each other.
Little outward thematic material is presented, however statements from the previous
films are referenced (including some Harry Manfredini
Friday the 13th
material). The opening cue, "Legend," as well as the final battle on the dock,
contains the only harmonious orchestral statements of motifs or themes, and these
moments are easily the highlights. The score album (as opposed to the heavy metal
song compilation with no score that was offered in the same month) features a
satisfying amount of material from the film, ending just before the endless horror
cliches fray on the nerves.
***
| Bias Check: | For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 2.67 (in 18 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.78
(in 13,793 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
