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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Others: (Alejandro Amenabar) Only once in a while does a mainstream film feature a single writer, director, and composer all in one, and this is the case with Alejandro Amenabar, whose English speaking and scoring debut is this summer's late horror hit, The Others. Questions are always raised as to whether or not one man should even attempt to write, direct, and score the same film, because such efforts have often led to disasterous outcomes in the past (though John Ottman remains one of the few composer/filmmakers with a chance to make it work). With the popular success, and a spattering of mixed critical reviews, The Others has done well at a time of the year when there is little else to be excited about. Amenabar's scoring techniques are not those of what you have come to expect from modern popular composers. Instead of conceiving of the music for this score in a studio, Amenabar did so in his own flat (apartment), sometimes to the torment of his roommates. Because of his possible over-extension, he did not conduct or produce the score in its later stages. Nevertheless, audiences have heralded The Others as one of the more superior horror films of the past few years, in part because of the effective score. The reasons for people's delight with this score vary widely. There is no doubt that it adds a undeniably powerful atmosphere for the downright creepy film. But whereas some movie goers would point to the score's refreshing lack of cliched sounds, others would point to its minimalistic style of enhancing the story, rather than being a part of it. The latter distinction is a common way of labeling horror scores. They are either minimalistic, like James Newton Howard's The Sixth Sense, or they become an outward extension of the film, like Christopher Young's Hellraiser scores. Both kinds of scores have their own set of cliches they'd like to avoid, because, after all, there are only a finite number of ways to musically scare the audience with an orchestra and its individual pieces. Alejandro Amenabar's The Others is among the kind of horror scores meant simply for the establishment of an echoing, minimalistic atmosphere, with an occasional burst of orchestral fright. There is no title theme at any elevated level, nor can a single instrument be pointed to as the carrier of the score's burden. Nevertheless, Amenabar succeeds in using the orchestra (and particularly a heavy set of strings) in a non-descript, unglorious fashion to extend the horror of the story. While this kind of minimalistic score, playing it safe (so to speak), is a viable piece of the film's puzzle, it lacks any exciting or interesting hook to sustain the listener of the album. Amenabar's functional (and even admirable) score still falls a few steps behind comparable scores by more established composers. Howard's The Sixth Sense is an example of a score which extends its character motifs, especially with piano, into the medium of the album without the loss of much power, making its album an equally interesting listening experience. Another interesting aspect of the music for The Others is its ability to hide its cliched uses of instrumentation while playing in the film. If you inspect the album closely, you'll hear all the same female voices, wandering pianos, lonely music boxes, and brass hits that have been used by hundreds of composers for decades past. Amenabar, to his credit, doesn't slap the listener in the face with such cliches, as Jerry Goldsmith did with The Haunting a few years back, because the cliche horror elements in The Others are hidden with greater care. Still, the score on album is a significantly different incarnation for Amenabar than the music as heard in the film. Having served its purpose well, there is really no reason to complain, but if you've seen the movie and are assuming that the score on album is equally provocative, then you will be disappointed by the forty minute Sony Classical album. Its pace is difficult and withdrawn, and the lack of a sharp or poignant performance by the London Session Orchestra (which can sometimes produce some of the most and least inspired performances on consecutive days) causes the album to drag itself along without a well-developed theme or motif to carry itself in the absence of the visuals.
Music as heard on album: ** Overall rating: ***
The insert includes a short note from Amenabar, but nothing else about the score or film. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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