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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Produced by:
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Howard Shore
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Release Date:
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April 16th, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear one of Howard Shore's darkest, most
brooding thrillers, with the orchestral ensemble used as a blunt sound
effects machine.
Avoid it... if a themeless, gut-wrenching underscore of thirty minutes
on album isn't your cup of tea.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Panic Room: (Howard Shore) A smaller project sandwiched
just after Shore's first adventure with The Lord of the Rings (and an
Academy Award win), Panic Room is another collaboration between Shore
and director David Fincher. The genre of films that these two bring to life
are trademark modern thrillers, with The Game and Seven
offering bleak scores for troubling films. The amount of psychological
trauma that is often inflicted upon the viewer is something that Shore seems
to be able to understand, because the composer has had a knack for bucking
Hollywood trends and providing equally disturbing music for these projects.
Whereas a composer like Jerry Goldsmith often prefers to score his horror
assignments with more of a stylistic, thematic edge, Shore is content to
travel closer to the Bernard Herrmann route of using the orchestra like a
blunt tool with which to draw out the primordial emotions of the audience by
making an underscore that sounds more like noise rather than music. Such is
the case once again with Panic Room, a project which pits a homeowner
(Jodie Foster) and her daughter against a gang of ruthless burglars. The
criminals' battle with the homeowner revolves are a panic room in her house,
a novelty item that is strangely becoming popular in upscale homes at the
turn of the century. The tension is a high as it can be, with the threat
extending from the sexual domain all the way to one of life threatening
proportions. Needless to say, it's an unpleasant film concept in every
regard.
Shore responds with an equally brutish, difficult, and
tense orchestral score. Employing a nearly a full orchestra (minus
trumpets), Shore uses the ensemble as a noise-generating machine to create a
range of sounds from spooky ambience to grinding horror. He never unleashes
the ensemble into a distinct or crashing motif, but rather allows his
beastly creation to simmer underneath the surface for the entire film.
Instead of allowing an array of synthesizers to produce largely the same
effect, Shore uses the ensemble's size as an even more gut-wrenching
instrument of terror. The constant, low bass strings and brass produce a
sinking feeling in the stomach of the listener from the start to end. The
score is themeless in traditional respects, although the main title sequence
offers a hint at a theme that would prove to be a one-time display of
non-horror music. Even in this title cue, the chopping of the violins is a
prelude to the string rhythms that would determine the mood for the rest of
the score. The closer danger comes to the homeowner and her daughter, the
more pronounced the single strikes of the strings become. To the casual ear,
the score for Panic Room will seem --from beginning to end-- to be an
exercise in sound effects. And despite what Shore enthusiasts attempt to say
about the development of complexity in this score, there is something to be
said about using the power of an unguided ensemble to raise fear without
sophisticated measures. On album, Panic Room doesn't offer much for
the listener, and the choice to release the score was likely a reaction to
the composer's popularity after his Oscar win and continued success in the
Lord of the Rings series. Even for the sake of mood-building, the
score on album is short and underdeveloped for a substantially interesting
listen. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Main Title (2:09)
• 2. Caution - Flammable (4:51)
• 3. Working Elevator (4:25)
• 4. Fourth Floor Hallway (3:26)
• 5. Locking Us In (3:16)
• 6. Castle Keep (2:37)
• 7. What We Want is in that Room (3:07)
• 8. Zone 19 Disabled (3:18)
• 9. A Very Emotional Property (3:01)
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Insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about the score or film.
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