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Orchestrated by:
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Steve Bartek
Mark McKenzie
Edgardo Simone
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Release Date:
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July 16th, 1996
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Elfman | |
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The Frighteners: (Danny Elfman) Long before his
adventures with The Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson brought
the campy ghost story of The Frighteners to the big screen. The 1996
film starred Michael J. Fox as a person who could see and talk to ghosts,
and thus, the film was rich for its time in the amount of CGI effects
generously provided for the audience. As to be expected, The
Frighteners, despite its considerable comedy in dark places, is a horror
film. It would be the final film that Jackson would direct before heading
down under for the three film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings,
and his sparse directorial output before The Frighteners often
utilized the music of Peter Dasent. His hiring of composer Danny Elfman for
the project was not an obvious choice, but a well grounded one. Elfman was
no stranger to the horror genre, especially with projects that had similarly
suspect popular appeal, such as Darkman and Nightbreed. These
films allowed Elfman the ability to fully unleash his dark talents while
inserting brooding, melancholy themes at his leisure (something we all know
he loves to do). With The Frighteners, you get the same basic formula
of Elfman's previous horror writing, but without the same trailblazing
spirit that you heard during the inspired moments of those previous scores.
In the same context, The Frighteners is handled with some of the same
combination of horror and absurdity as Scrooged, which was one of
Elfman's earlier orchestral efforts. Like Scrooged, the score for
The Frighteners establishes a mock horror style and occasionally
interrupts it with a touch of comedy flair. Unfortunately, by 1996, this
sound from Elfman was sounding repetitive, if not downright old and
overused, and thus, The Frighteners suffers from the lack of an
originality with which to recall it when pondering Elfman's career.
If you study each of the elements by themselves, Elfman's
construction of the music for The Frighteners is by no means
repulsive or inadequate. Individual elements excel. The strings quiver and
tear in Elfman's usual, frenetic fashion. The brass explodes with disjointed
motifs of very complex performance. A light, female choir dances with
troubled style throughout the effort. Specialty percussion instruments
highlight the work of Elfman's usual, interesting orchestration partners. A
harpsichord, several chimes, tambourines, a flourishing harp, and, most
importantly, the use of tolling bells all signify that death is near. An
organ adds the necessary religious aspect to the mix. The bass bassoons are
given their typical, deep, and bloated performances. The string section is
often led by a single violin or viola performing a wicked (if not nasty)
solo rhythm, which is another traditional Elfman use. If you are seeing a
pattern here, it's one of repetition in Elfman's adaptation of his own
previous styles, if not exact material. If The Frighteners had
debuted in 1988, then it would be able to carry much more critical success
with it, because by 1996, every element of its construct was becoming
tiresome in Elfman's career. Some aspects of his music were changing,
however, and mostly towards the disjointed end of the scale. The light
female choirs used for The Frighteners, whether performing whole
notes or single bursts in rapid succession, no longer perform in harmonious
counterpoint to whatever thematic development Elfman is attempting to
create. Such a technique would become even more obvious in Mars
Attacks!, by which time Elfman's use of that kind of choir became known
for its comedic value rather than an its awe or fear inspiring nature. With
his previous ideas for the genre thrust together as a horror score package,
The Frighteners is correctly identified as lacking any cohesive
creativity by most mainstream listeners. Fans will likely overlook this
stumble by Elfman, although the commercial album (complete with the mellow
end credits song) is missing considerable material from lengthy sections of
the film. *
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Intro/Titles (5:43)
• 2. The Lads (2:00)
• 3. Poltergeists (2:05)
• 4. Victim #38 (1:52)
• 5. Who's Next? (1:39)
• 6. The Garden (3:08)
• 7. Chilly (1:29)
• 8. Time (4:41)
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• 9. Patty's Place (2:12)
• 10. Flashbacks (1:07)
• 11. Patty Attack (3:04)
• 12. Frank's Wife (0:50)
• 13. Doom (3:08)
• 14. Heaven (1:46)
• 15. Don't Fear the Reaper* (5:46)
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* Written by Donald Roeser/Performed by The Mutton Birds
Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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