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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Programmed, and Performed by:
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John Ottman
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Co-Orchestrated and Conducted by:
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Damon Intrabartolo
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Release Date:
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November 18th, 2003
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy John Ottman's lyrical sense of style and
personal, thematic development in his suspenseful underscores.
Avoid it... if you prefer your Ottman thriller scores to be flighty and
ambitious, with the whole orchestral ensemble participating in overt slashes
and hits.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Ottman | |
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Gothika: (John Ottman) Rushed at breakneck speed in an
attempt to capture a Halloween audience, Gothika missed its mark and
hit theatres at the height of the Christmas film releases. Its plot is
leagues away from having the holiday spirit, with a criminal psychologist
(Halle Berry) accused of murdering her husband and driven nearly insane in
her search for truth. During her investigation, she fights the horrors of a
dark prison and messages from ghosts that are giving her clues about their
murders (that relate also to her own predicament). Despite some hefty star
power (including Robert Downey, Jr. and Penelope Cruz in supporting roles),
the film was introduced to composer John Ottman from the start as a 'low
budget' horror project. While Ottman was not responsible for the film's late
arrival, the same process that caused the film's delays also led Ottman on
his own journey of frustration and breakneck artistry. Ottman is, of course,
no stranger to the horror genre; he seems to excel with a sense of morbid
pleasure when offered horror films to score, and he even directed, edited,
and scored his own entry, Urban Legends: Final Cut, in 2000. For
Gothika, Ottman would need to lend an organic sound to the
psychological thriller, another task with which the composer is familiar.
After presenting a demo for 15 minutes of the film in just two days (be sure
to read the humorous tale of this event on Ottman's official site, including
his internal response to the 2-day demo process: "Impossible! It will be
shit!"), Ottman impressed the director and producer of the film with his
living, breathing style of orchestral writing. In the latter stages of
production, his score would be expanded to fit into nearly every dark corner
of the film's running time, and the score had to be frantically placed into
the film's scenes before running the film (in pieces) past the studio for
approval. As proven in the past, however, Ottman is also no stranger to the
art of quick-scoring, and his output for Gothika is impressive under
those same circumstances.
First and foremost, it's important to mention that Ottman's
typical, lyrical style of providing a gothic atmosphere for his music is
alive and well in Gothika. He occasionally loses that creative touch
in the horror genre, as had happened with Trapped the previous year.
But his knack for solemn themes, choral majesty, and unusual percussion
comes into full play here, making Gothika a score that transcends the
normal boundaries of 'fright and flight' thriller scores. The orchestral
ensemble is not as pounding and relentless in its bold brass hits (as, for
instance, we would hear in his, or Chris Young's or Graeme Revell's slasher
works). One notable moment of shrill brass hits comes in the "Revelation"
cue. Restraining the score to the psychological realm, however, Ottman
provides personal themes for three elements in the film, and relies on
scratching, tearing, and quivering sound effects with the ensemble for most
of the traditionally scary accents. His piano and string theme for the
primary character, Miranda, is soft and personable, highlighted by a
three-note woodwind/choral motif over the top of key chord changes. This
simple touch would prove to be the highlight of the score, because while
Ottman would incorporate the full Miranda theme into a few other places
throughout the score, the three-note motif, following the same compassionate
appeal as the whole theme, is worked into many more cues throughout the
effort. The motif serves as a reminder of the character's goodness, and
provides hope in an otherwise troubled underscore. The theme for the little
girl's ghost is mixed with the sound effects of disjointed whispering
sounds. An oppressive theme for the prison itself is performed by cello and
choir, and its empathic connection with the audience is established in "One
of Us" and "You're Next." The latter cue serves as a suite, to some extent,
of the film's thematic ideas, and the score finishes on a slightly
optimistic rendition of Miranda's theme. For the sake of suspense, the cue
"Final Escape" makes excellent use of timpani and an array of clicking
percussion, satisfying Ottman collectors who prefer his keen sense of
working an entire ensemble into each work. Overall, there is at least ten
minutes of very enjoyable, thematic development in Gothika, and while
the suspenseful underscore in between these minutes is nothing spectacular,
Ottman fans should not hesitate to investigate his newest lyrical journey in
the darkness. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Prologue (2:06)
• 2. Miranda's Theme (1:47)
• 3. Remembering Rachael (2:23)
• 4. Final Escape (6:20)
• 5. Road Block/First Contact (2:33)
• 6. An Affair (3:00)
• 7. First Escape (4:32)
• 8. One of Us/The Shower (4:41)
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• 9. Willow Creek (3:36)
• 10. Recollections (3:14)
• 11. The House/Dream (4:03)
• 12. I'm the Mirror/Not Alone (2:20)
• 13. Revelation (4:40)
• 14. You're Next (2:41)
• 15. I See Dead Kids (1:46)
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about the score or film.
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