Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if nothing but the most deeply engaging gothic darkness from an orchestra and choir will suffice for your late night horror listening experiences. Avoid it... if you expect Trevor Jones to state his morbid themes for From Hell in the obvious clarity that you've heard from him in the majority of his other high profile works. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
From Hell: (Trevor Jones) Hailing from a series of popular comic books of the same name, the hunt for Jack the Ripper hit the big screens by the power of the Hughes Brothers (Allen and Albert), whose films had typically gravitated towards the John Singleton side of contemporary black dramas. Their surprisingly effective From Hell succeeds because of its absolutely convincing atmosphere, maintained by both the dreary look of its stunning visual conceptualization of old London and an extremely dense score by Trevor Jones. The heavy opium usage, prostitution, disease, and graphic gore depicted in From Hell kept it from mainstream acceptance, though its critical response was stronger than most may remember. To hear a classically robust, Victorian score for a Hughes Brothers film was an intriguing concept, though it should be no surprise that the popular highlight of the music for the film was the "Wormwood Remix" of Marilyn Manson's Holy Wood album single "The Nobodies." Whether the song should receive all the credit or not, the album initially performed as well as (if not better than) the film. The subject matter of the film was an obvious avenue for a powerfully gothic score from Jones, who had already explored similar depths of orchestral and choral malice and despair in 1998's Dark City. Jones' versatility was beginning to show after an early career during which his "self rip-offs" were documented more often than not, writing a runaway Victorian score for From Hell with brooding gothic development of theme and strings that will raise the spirit of any night-dwelling film score listener. While the music for this film is heavily rooted in moody layers of the orchestral, the talents which Jones employed for From Hell included both the vocal and synthetic realms as well, with even an ethnically bizarre Chinese edge in certain accented spots (likely for the opium element). Stepping above the genre of the typical slashing horror music that many thought Jones would produce, his resulting effort showed promise of being a noteworthy career notch for the continuously more popular composer. While it didn't realize its full potential in the mainstream, this score still stands as among the best of a very strong year of 2001 for all film scores. Two interesting adjectives initially used by some in the film music community to describe this score are "bleak" and "sorcerous." The latter is an intriguingly accurate descriptor that applies based on Jones' instrumentation alone. But the label of "bleak" isn't exactly right. It is a very dark and suspenseful score, indeed, and Jones does everything right to create atmosphere of dread in which his music can brood with malice and fright. That shadowy environment doesn't allow the composer to burst forth with the kind of melodic statements of theme for which he is famous, but to counteract the consistently tightened sense of unease, Jones refrains from producing simplistically bleak music by nearly always inserting masterful vocals or synthetic distortions during the score's slower moments. His integration of Chinese instrumentation, digitally mutilated in seemingly fashionable ways, creaks and groans like the opening of an old wooden door, and this and similar techniques offer a sharply engaging edge to From Hell that keeps it from ever becoming bleak in a distancing sense. The instrumentation, synthetic or otherwise, when combined with the deep vocals of a full chorus, adds the touch of "sorcery" that much better describes this score. The orchestra of choice for the recording of this score is equally important. The Academy of St. Martins in the Field is well known for its masterful string performances of classical pieces (as well as the occasional high profile film score), and Jones' use of their talents in this recording is superb. It is a composition dominated by cellos and basses, with swirling violins accompanying an often methodical low string motif that churns with perpetual turbulence. The chase sequences offer brass only as a supplement (though Jones can't resist using them as gorgeous counterpoint for the love theme), with the frantic but deliberate energy of the strings pushing the action into a very believable setting for the story. Despite his synthetic experimentation, Jones' music for From Hell is, most importantly, very believable for the time of 1888. He even inserts the sound of distant tolling of bells that many will associate with London. It is thus a score that frightens and impresses all in one, and its flourishing sense of dramatic darkness makes it a perfect listening experience for Halloween night. As for the thematic elements of the score, From Hell has a subtly powerful love theme that may not encapsulate you at the start but makes its full, grand entrance in "Portrait of a Prince." Some listeners will notice a similarity in progression to David Arnold's love theme for Tomorrow Never Dies, though more interesting is an interlude at about two minutes into the aforementioned cue that lifts a full statement of the Jones' theme for the 1999 television production of Cleopatra. The love theme develops into a fully morbid ensemble performance in "Pennies for the Ferryman," joining a rowdy rhythmic motif of death established by full chorus in "The Compass and the Ruler" as the primary identities of the work. You have to allow From Hell some time to develop its themes into their eventual forms, taking over twenty minutes on album to really build steam towards that memorable melodic identity. Heavily rooted in the minor key and layered with an overbearing string section and creative use of digital instrumentation, these themes' few clear statements late in the score, without any background dissonance, are a pleasure. As a listening experience, the entire score requires repeat plays to full appreciate the intricacies that do eventually reveal themselves from the shadows. The Manson song at the beginning is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Trevor Jones collectors will likely skip past it without a second thought, as they should, and it is the only intolerable aspect of the entire product. Of a more curious nature is the insertion of a couple of special audio effects onto the album. Jones' original music is digitally mixed to make it sound as though it is playing on an ancient gramophone player, with all the scratches and wobbles that you'd expect to hear with that recording. In "The Compass and the Ruler," Jones' dominating bass string and choral motif is mixed into this antique style before transforming suddenly into contemporary resonance, a remarkable effect that could alone be worth the price of the album for fans of explosive gothic music. The final track is also a manipulation (of a vocal performance in that case) to give the piece a style of sound over a century old. Overall, From Hell may not be an overtly frightening score, but it is still one of the best horror genre efforts of the 2000's, and fans of unyielding gothic sounds will delight in its persistent aura of sorcery. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 72:22
All artwork and sound clips from From Hell are Copyright © 2001, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/27/01, updated 2/1/09. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2001-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
