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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you're a sucker for John Ottman's addictive lyrical themes and quietly intelligent thematic development for orchestra. Avoid it... if three or four cues of a tense, vocally-innocent child's lullaby can't compensate for half an hour of average, more stock horror ideas. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Replacing Chris Young on the project is no substantial loss these days in the horror industry given Ottman's ability and apparent willingness to write music of a quality undeserved by such films. Once again, Hide and Seek is a project for which Ottman presents interesting ideas to film music collectors in an atmosphere that likely could have sufficed with far less, and the end result is a satisfying listening experience on album. The thematic centerpiece of Ottman's score is, as usual, his most creative idea for the film. A child's lullaby is penned for the Emily character (Fanning), a simple two-verse, six note piece that strikes similarities to children's rhymes and other songs you'll vaguely recall from your own youth. While bordering on cliche whenever such a "la-la" song is used in this circumstance (especially since Jerry Goldsmith's Poltergeist), Ottman pulls it off without false pretense. Part of this success in the opening cue, and in the thematic performances throughout, is due to Ottman's constant reminder of tension in his quiet crescendos, pulses, and other strokes of emphasis on the subtleties of notes in both the forefront and the counterpoint. A superb example of this tension in the face of innocence is developed in "Toy Shrine" and "The Playground," back-to-back cues that offer solo piano and string performances that shift with just right tones of magic and curiosity as to pull you into a child's psychological world. The action material is less unique to Hide and Seek, although the album is arranged so that the more intriguing rhythmic portions exist at the start. Both "What Did You Do?" and "Can You See Now?" present frantic, alternating string rhythms with tingling harp, synthetic choir, and slowly rising chord progressions that lead up to each grisly discovery. In the latter half of the album, Ottman does resort to stock orchestra hits, less interesting wild string waverings, and fewer integrations of his established theme. The album's price will be determined based on your liking of the lullaby, however, and Ottman knows this. After the wordless introduction of the theme in the opening cue, a version by the same voice with clever lyrics closes out a suite-like performance highlight in the final score cue. The last track on the album is a rock instrument and slow electronica rhythm rendition of the same theme by an adult female voice, and although it shares absolutely no characteristics with the orchestral score, it is surprisingly easy to enjoy in and of itself. Its appeal seems to exist in Ottman's ability to transfer the same melancholy attitude to a rendition of a melody that is instrumentally so different. Overall, Hide and Seek is yet another Ottman score that has three or four fabulous tracks for a compilation surrounded by basically interesting, but not substantially fresh horror ideas. ***
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