Buy it... if you seek Jerry Goldsmith's last truly accomplished horror score, overflowing with creepy atmosphere and chilling themes meant to put you at unease rather than outwardly scare you.

Avoid it... if you expect the score to offer the complexity of structure and explicitly frightening bombast of Goldsmith's classic horror scores from decades before.

Goldsmith

The Haunting: (Jerry Goldsmith) The 1999 adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House" is the second attempt to bring the story to life on the screen, but unfortunately for remake director Jan de Bont, he doesn't have the wisdom of how to scare audiences as effectively as Robert Wise did in 1963. Despite the outstanding production and set design for The Haunting, a contrived series of story alterations and very poor acting performances by most of the leads caused the critical and popular demise of the haunted mansion film. The premise of The Haunting is quite promising, placing a group of insomniacs in a spooky old manor under the guise of studying their sleep habits. The scientist heading this operation hopes to actually study their responses to fear, but the plan goes awry when he underestimates the ghostly nature of the house himself. By the last half hour of its running, The Haunting lost all cohesion and turned into somewhat of a parody of similar failures. For cheap thrill seekers, however, the movie is worth late night viewing due to its gothic beauty in set design and an above-average suspense score by veteran Jerry Goldsmith. The composer was long removed from his days of classic horror, led by the outstanding success of The Omen and Poltergeist, but he was revisiting the genre one last time before his death in 2004. This final phase of horror scores, ranging from Deep Rising to Hollow Man, were completely anonymous compared to the aforementioned, Oscar-worthy classics. The best of these late entries is indeed The Haunting, a score that relies far more heavily on suspense rather than the slashing, brute action of the others. While all of these final scores by Goldsmith retained characteristic traits that attract his collectors, The Haunting is a far more refined score, using subtlety and nuance with a touch that was dwindling as Goldsmith neared his death. To listeners looking for traditional horror in the form of bombastic strikes from the ensemble: read no further.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Goldsmith's work for The Haunting is the reaction it solicits from the listener. You can never get a clear sense of whether Goldsmith is using the gliding, whimsical structures of his score to ease you (along with the loveliness of the film's visuals), or if he's using that beauty simply to lure you into a false sense of security. The answer is, of course, both, and it's the composer's method of addressing both the heart of the film's protagonist (and the souls she saves) as well as the enticingly eerie atmosphere of the haunted house. Goldsmith wrote three themes for The Haunting, and two of them perfectly serve that distinction. The lead character of Eleanor (played by Lili Taylor) is treated to a trademark Goldsmith theme of innocence, introduced in "A Place for Everything" and achieving lengthy resolution in "Home Safe." Written for xylophone and flute, this theme not only represents the wholesome goodness of Eleanor, but also the lost souls of the children trapped inside the mansion. The other theme is arguably the primary idea of the score, and it's among Goldsmith's most intoxicating. Always stated with chilling resolve, this theme delicately descends as if caught in a drafty room, starting at the highest registers of the violins and majestically falling to a whisper. Its deliberately alternating baseline is soothingly harmonic, leading to an environment that easily suggests false comfort. This theme's prevailing presence in the latter half of "The Carousel," as well as coldly dramatic statements in "A Place for Everything," "Curly Hair," and "Home Safe," is often preceded by a menacing horn motif that first occurs in "The Carousel." The third theme in The Haunting is one for the freaky mirrors of a merry-go-round play room in the mansion, and while this theme forcefully establishes itself at the start of the film and score, it only receives one later treatment. A descendent of both Goldsmith's Papillon and Christopher Young's similar sequence in Hellraiser II, this carnival waltz is a major detraction from The Haunting.

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While the film has its fair share of frights, especially later in its story, the score doesn't reflect these in much of its length. Only two cues on the album for The Haunting explore full-fledged bombast, and both feature an ambitious percussion and synthesizer rhythm as powerfully forceful as those in the composer's just previous The 13th Warrior. An echoing synthesizer effect in these cues is identical to that used in the action sequences of Star Trek: Insurrection, and it's brilliantly woven into the ensemble as a single performer equal to any in the resounding percussion section. The last half of "Finally Home" uses a propulsive sense of the inevitable that raises memories of the turbulent highlights of Poltergeist, though the incarnation of this idea here is more straight forward and harmonically pleasing. The last minute before the crescendos of resolution in "Finally Home" is a spirited exercise in the mutilation of the score's themes. The remainder of the score is adept at giving you a sinking feeling of unease. The synths contribute wind-blowing effects that go back to "The Cloud" in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Both of the score's two lighter themes are omnipresent in this material, with even the bass woodwinds getting in on some of the more spine-tingling thematic variations. Overall, The Haunting is a score meant to be far more creepy rather than scary. In fact, significant portions could be assembled into an extremely relaxing listening experience. As with Goldsmith's other recordings in 1998 and 1999, the sound quality of the score is extraordinary, with Bruce Botnick's work at the Newman Scoring Stage leading to an album with crisp and dynamic sound while maintaining a healthy amount of reverb. The expansive soundscape especially aids in the delightfully chilling performances of the house's theme by the string section. Without a doubt, 1999 was Goldsmith's last great year, and The Haunting stands alongside its more bombastic cousin, The 13th Warrior, as a welcome addition to any collection of the composer's works. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 113 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.32 (in 133,461 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.