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Composed and Co-Produced by:
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John Frizzell
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Co-Produced by:
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Adam Barber
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Release Date:
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November 6th, 2001
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear a score that is better than John
Frizzell's other horror efforts, with stronger cohesion than Ghost
Ship.
Avoid it... if only five or six minutes of great, rip-snorting horror
music doesn't justify purchasing the entire album for you.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Thirteen Ghosts: (John Frizzell) This remake of William
Castle's 1960 classic of the same name follows largely the same storyline
and uses modern set technologies to update its visual appeal. Met with harsh
criticism from audiences and critics alike, director Steve Beck's new
Thirteen Ghosts is a film that is surprisingly short on truly
frightening sequences and even more surprisingly short on running time. The
film compensates for this flaw by presenting the haunted house with
brilliant, elaborate sets of glass and steel. The family who enters the
house, claiming it as inheritence from a dead, eccentric uncle, accidentally
starts up the machine within it basement, causing its massive gears and
glass walls to shift unpredictably and, in an unrelated twist, unleashing
twelve ghosts who want to kill one of them and thus, as thirteen in sum,
unleash the forces of Hell on our microwave/fast-food loving population. The
film would be remarkably similar to the kind of stereotypical genre work
that composer John Fizzell would be assigned early in his career. Until his
180 degree turn in 2003, when his break-out score for Gods and
Generals would shock score listeners around the globe, Frizzell was the
master of scoring films in which people are running away from scary threats,
whether natural or unnatural. After Alien Resurrection and Dante's
Peak, Frizzell would follow Thirteen Ghosts with a nearly
identical genre project for Ghost Ship in 2002. With so many
overwhelming similarities between the films Thirteen Ghosts and
Ghost Ship, it's hard not to compare the two endeavors for Frizzell.
The composer would be attempting to establish a new sound that would tread
somewhere in between those of Marco Beltrami and John Debney, whose modern
horror sounds had become the standard Hollywood issue.
Frizzell has typically stayed away from electronic
elements, favoring unique instrumentation of a traditional orchestra
instead. With Thirteen Ghosts featuring a distinct set of characters
--thirteen enemies, so to speak, if you include the twelve attacking ghosts
and the mechanism itself-- Frizzell was challenged to provide each with a
distinct style of horror. The machine that captures the spirits and opens
the gates of Hell (remind anyone of Event Horizon?) is presented with
a tingling array of percussive sounds, mostly relating to metalic clangs and
unusual sound effects of a similar nature. Most of the ghosts themselves are
given no specific motif, however two exceptional standouts should be
mentioned: "The Jackall" is performed with a ripping electric guitar-laced
theme that is the only truly terrifying cue in the score. Likewise, the
pounding rhythm for "The Juggernaut" is a driving brass piece combined with
relentless cymbal crashes (which is a nice effect considering how much glass
is seen in the movie and cymbals often sound like shattering glass when
unleashed in full) and is easily the highlight of the score. This cue opens
the score album, and the same driving percussion and brass theme would be
heard again during the return of crazy uncle Cyrus at the end of the film.
The other ghosts are presented with mostly generic, stock horror music that
crashes when appropriate and rumbles when stalking. As the climax of the
film approaches, fulfilling the quest for the thirteenth ghost and
activating the gates of Hell (before, of course, the whole damn thing could
have its plug pulled), the score builds a full head of steam, offering
variations on "The Juggernaut" theme before finally ending with a pleasant
resolution of mundane, positive strings. Overall, the score is as
predictable as the film, though Frizzell executes it well, serving up a
horror score that goes beyond the call of duty in parts while remaining
barely functional in other parts. A very similar formula would be employed
by Frizzell for Ghost Ship, with the two scores acting as sister
projects with very similar sensibilities. Together, they're a noisy romp. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. The Juggernaut (3:32)
• 2. What's in the Basement? (2:06)
• 3. Main Title (2:58)
• 4. Entering the House (3:22)
• 5. Cyrus' Will (3:01)
• 6. Rafkin Struck Down (1:54)
• 7. The Jackal Attacks (1:54)
• 8. The Princess (2:38)
• 9. Junkyard (3:18)
• 10. Opening of the Chambers (3:35)
• 11. Rafkin Dies (1:26)
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• 12. Ben Moss Splits (3:13)
• 13. The Hammer (1:06)
• 14. Leaving the Library (2:47)
• 15. Gene Returns (2:53)
• 16. The Ghosts Escape (1:52)
• 17. The Arcana (2:17)
• 18. Gene Returns (2:53)
• 19. Bobby Gets Lost (3:23)
• 20. Cyrus Returns (2:18)
• 21. The 13th Ghost (3:40)
• 22. The Machine Destroyed (4:10)
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. The song "Excess" by 'Tricky' and Alanis Morissette does not appear on the album.
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