Buy it... if apocalyptic romps with energetic orchestras and choirs are always in order for a pleasant Sunday morning listen, no matter how derivative and predictable they might be.

Avoid it... if John Frizzell's habit of providing adequate, but not necessarily fresh horror music doesn't stir your soul.

Frizzell

The Reaping: (John Frizzell) Films about the plagues of the Old Testament can be lively and entertaining, especially when modern special effects show all the nasty parts --especially the locusts-- in all their apocalyptic glory. It's a good topic with which filmmakers can prey upon the nightmares of God-fearing folks in the audience, especially when you throw in Hilary Swank as the all-too-buff-looking professor sent to a small Louisiana town to debunk the wrath of God-type events that are happening there. Maybe the concept of hurricanes could be pointed to the Old Testament, too. Why not? What she finds there is an actual manifestation of those pesky old plagues, along with some terrible dialogue, sketchy direction, and predictable plot twists. Critics have certainly seen these events unfold on screen before, and along with aforementioned problems, a dreadful ensemble cast performance led the film to its demise in the review columns. Warner Brothers certainly had foreseen this outcome, for the studio had held up the project in post-production for an entire year to try to salvage it through edits and re-arrangements. One of the parts of the production that was thrown out was Philip Glass' score, which begs a significant number of questions mostly related to why Glass was attached to the project in the first place and what kind of music he would actually write for such an awful B-rate horror flick. As anybody familiar with his career might predict, Glass' sound doesn't mesh with this genre, and perhaps the most interesting aspect of this entire affair would be to ponder his contribution. At any rate, though, the studio brought in a more consistent horror composer in the form of John Frizzell to provide a last-minute score for The Reaping. With a career littered with both normal and supernatural horror and thriller scores, Frizzell can write stereotypical music for films like this in his sleep, and his finished recordings for The Reaping extend that reputation. If you could sit back and imagine every cliche you could take advantage of for this kind of biblical nonsense on screen, you'd come up with the same list that Fizzell apparently did, for The Reaping ultimately sounds as predictable as it could possibly be.

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One thing is also definitely clear: writing a score about the biblical apocalypse must be lots of fun. It's everything about The Passion of the Christ gone horribly wrong, in a musical sense, and the striking battle between beauty and dissonance in the score is amusingly appropriate at the least. The fully orchestral score is complimented by a series of strong synthetic effects to cater to the sense of the unknown. A 60-member choir provides exactly what's expected as well; in "God Intervenes," their majesty is unquestioned, while in "Locusts," their debt to Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen score is equally unquestioned. Moments of revelation are offered with sweeping beauty, though the majority of the score joyously tackles the entropy of the end of times with enthusiastic zeal. A title theme exists, with its most prominent and enjoyable performance existing in "The Boy," which, along with the previous cue and "Trip to Haven," mark the only lengthy segments of easy listening on the album. Other motifs are well referenced. The dissonance that occupies most of the remainder of the score isn't unlistenable at most times because of Frizzell's remarkable creativity in orchestration. A touch of Elliot Goldenthal drips from the ceiling in The Reaping, and equally intelligent is the incorporation of instrumentation to represent sound effects for both the locusts and flies. Frizzell is quite adept at capturing the spirit of panic and aggression with the ensemble, forcing relentless rhythms of torturous tones that defined both Thirteen Ghosts and now The Reaping. Still, so much of the inspiration for this score is clearly pulled from established norms for the genre that you can't help but roll your eyes and shake your head at how well he compiles it all. The only significant disappointment comes at the end of the album; first, Frizzell finishes "The Boy" with the unfortunate dissonant crescendo seemingly necessary to get your score accepted in this kind of film, and then steps into muddy waters with a wretched, rock-based rendition of the title theme. Otherwise, you'd have to say that Frizzell pulled all the right strings that Glass likely did not, and while none of it would have made any difference in the end because of the film's larger problems, Frizzell has created for The Reaping a promotional sampler of talents that perfectly represents what any horror-scoring expert could ever desire. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download