Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you can accept Christopher Young's most understated and difficult atmospheric techniques for over forty minutes of aimless sound design and challenging, minimal melodic structures. Avoid it... if you rely upon Young's characteristic habit of gracing his horror scores with at least a few minutes of gothic beauty, a lack of which here truly sinks this dispiriting music on album. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Grudge: (Christopher Young) If you're feeling down about the effect of the global recession of the late 2000's on the real estate market, sleep well knowing that there will always be one real estate transaction that is infinitely worse than yours. In the world of the Japanese Ju-on movie franchise, the world's worst home for sale is one in Japan that is horrifically cursed because of a series of killings in its confines that perpetually builds a supernatural force of evil with each person it afflicts. It starts with the domestic killing of a wife in a fit of jealous rage on the part of her husband, and before long, the whole family is dead, the next occupiers are dead, a long line of investigators are dead, and an American exchange student played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, along with all of her own friends and family, is next. The story resides somewhere in between the topics of haunted houses, slasher gore, and torture fetishes, with fallacies of logic that don't seem to stunt this ever-growing concept from starting first in Japan and then extending to a series of American remakes and spin-offs. One laser-guided missile could solve all of the ills with this particular piece of real estate, but let's not worry about practical solutions. Filmmaker and concept creator Takashi Shimizu was retained by Sam Raimi (in a producing role) to helm the American franchise, which started in 2004 with The Grudge. Although the budget for the original entry was quite restricted, veteran horror composer Christopher Young was hired to continue his magic in the genre. He was already established as a master of gothic horror music, despite the fact that some of his best successes in that realm were still to come. He was attached to the first two films in the American adaptation of this franchise, the latter in 2006 enjoying a larger orchestral and choral presence as a likely result of a budget twice the size as that of the original production. For The Grudge, Young provides what stands as one of his most understated and atmospheric scores in the genre, avoiding many of the standard formats and mechanisms that typically define this type of music for him. His efforts in this genre are usually handled with a combination of gracefully creepy lyricism and unconventional instrumental performance techniques, and in the absolutely most basic sense, The Grudge adheres to that formula. But in that approach, his thematic identity and application to this movie is far less appealing than usual and the abnormal use of instruments isn't particularly original. It's a rare miss for Young, one that may service its film adequately, but also an entry that will fail to meet expectations from many collectors of the composer's far more interesting works. The personality of the music in The Grudge is troubled in all of its parts and the minimally stocked orchestra is relegated to duties as sound effects more often than not. The strings are the seemingly the only straight-forward organic element in the mix, with the remainder consisting of keyboarded, vocalized, or otherwise manipulated effects for atmospheric maintenance or necessary stringers. The score's main melodic construct is often conveyed by an eerie keyboarded sound that resides somewhere between the chimes and a cimbalom. A meandering secondary idea is explored by piano in the central portion of the score but barely registers. Plucky strings are the most common element in the remainder of the soundscape, though a hazy environment of dissonant string and sampled effects make up 80% of the volume throughout. The outright horror portions are treated to mad plucking and striking of the strings in completely random layers, forcing the violins into chaotic noisemaking that could have been synthetic without much loss of effectiveness. Crescendos of this activity sometimes take minutes to build, culminating in violent frenzies of itchy sound design that is simply intolerable on album. Other portions drone aimlessly for extended sequences at a volume that begs you to amplify the score just in time for the next stinger. The main theme is the glue that connects Young's two scores for this franchise together, but there's nothing pleasant about it. The melody starts with a series of descending pairs of notes that are intentionally off-kilter, and these pairs are sometimes applied as their own motif in the rest of the score. The whole theme is treated with broken chords and extreme restraint on the score's album in "Ju-on Part I" and "Ju-on Part VIIII," the latter better enunciated. The only redeeming cue on that product is "Ju-on Part III," which contains the rambling secondary motif on piano for three minutes of music that is, quite frankly, the only accessible selection. The lack of any narrative flow in Young's music for The Grudge is the most disappointing revelation, perhaps a choice meant to represent the never-ending nature of the curse that haunts this one residence. The album, especially with its lack of individual cue titles, the music plays like a stock library of various shades of dread that the director could access and insert at any point in the movie. Even if you accept this format of presentation, there is little of interest in the score's demeanor, execution, or melodic aspects to win you over. Some say that The Grudge is a score that requires several listens to fully appreciate, though this reviewer is just as annoyed by it on the fourth pass. For a better articulated version of the same general ideas, seek Young's score for The Grudge 2, a far more dynamic recording that extends the main theme and adds several more organic elements, including a gothic choir, to the equation. Go ahead and curse it. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 42:06
(tracks are untitled on album packaging) All artwork and sound clips from The Grudge are Copyright © 2004, 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 12/29/11, updated 12/29/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2011-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
