Buy it... if you are curious about the origins of James Horner's most familiar structures and techniques, many of which evident in Wolfen and culminating in an interesting (if not marginally entertaining) listening experience.

Avoid it... if you expect to hear much of anything original in Deadly Blessing, a score that overshadows some decent pastoral writing with harrowing and painfully obvious references to Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen.

Horner

Wolfen/Deadly Blessing: (James Horner) Graduating from the schlock of Roger Corman's New World Pictures in the early 1980's, composer James Horner was beginning to take a variety of assignments for major studios and lesser known filmmakers of future stardom. Summarized on a longstanding bootleg album are two of Horner's such ventures from 1981, Wolfen and Deadly Blessing. The larger studio production of the two was Wolfen, a film with an aim that did not equate with either studio or audience expectations and therefore suffered an undeservedly quick death. While advertised as a werewolf film, a topic that had become extremely popular at the time, Wolfen was actually a spin-off of that subgenre, exploring the mystical relationship between wolves and Native Americans in New York City. When the wolves' habitat in an abandoned section of the city is threatened, they channel the thoughts of the Native Americans in their pursuit and killing of those who are responsible for this threat, namely politicians. A detective played by Albert Finney is charged with solving the mystery, and while he slowly reveals the unlikely truth, director Michael Wadleigh provides audiences with thrilling shots of New York life through the eyes of the wolves, the image shimmering to represent their sense of smell. Unfortunately, the adaptation of the story from the Whitley Strieber novel was considered too cerebral and was thus cut and rearranged by the editors several times in post-production; no less than four editors were eventually involved, leading to problematic, abrupt cuts and scene shifts that were unnatural. In this process of hacking the film to pieces, composer Craig Safan's score for Wolfen was removed and James Horner accepted the first of several replacement assignments that would yield some of his most interesting work of the early to mid-1980's. The majority of Wolfen is tense and suspenseful, not terribly dissonant but effective at creating a mysterious atmosphere. His title theme is a precursor of the motif for Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan the following year, the opening notes identical but explored to a conclusion that suggests early incarnations of the theme from Aliens. Often performed by harsh brass, this theme is translated to sensitive flute in "The Indian Bar." The most notable performances of the idea come in the slapping rhythmic cues of "Battery Park" and "Wolfen on Wall Street," both of which very similar to Khan's material in brutal tone and instrumentation. A melodramatic, more harmonious version of the theme at the end of "The Truth Revealed" is a highlight. Like the film, Horner's score is generally more interesting than it is enjoyable, a representation of fledgling ideas yet to mature in other works.

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A lesser project but one of interest to fans of director Wes Craven's early works is Deadly Blessing, his first attempt to break into studio ranks. Often considered extremely promising but underperforming in its haphazard red herrings and indecisive dual endings, the plot involves a rural American farming community of both Hittites and non-believers who both come under attack from a deadly force (or single maniac) that torments them supernaturally and murders indiscriminately. The main problem with Deadly Blessing is evidenced in the differences between the final two minutes of the international and domestic versions of the film (in the former, a normal killer is the culprit and, in the latter, a demon bursts through the floor to drag a woman to hellÉ no kidding!). It's a ridiculous horror flick that falsely pits the pious against the sinners and throws the great acting of Ernest Borgnine against the incompetent acting of Sharon Stone. Horner's score is an awkward blend of his most hearty Americana tones of the early 1980's and blatant rip-offs of Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen, resulting in a score that requires a significant amount of track rearrangement to enjoy. The pastoral theme for strings, woodwinds, and harp heard in the early cues is simply beautiful, evolving into a similar love theme and a variation in "Vicky & John" that is a blatant rehearsal of material from The Spitfire Grill and Deep Impact. The suspense of the score comes in the form of deep, menacing choral tones (almost like throat singing) that incorporates religious power in its solemn chime-banging that could have informed The Name of the Rose had the latter film had a more ambitious budget. Extremely high range plucking on violins is a disturbing effect. The most memorable parts of Deadly Blessing, however, are the direct references to Goldsmith's The Omen. When Goldsmith later made a wisecrack about Horner "helping himself to the work of others," it's hard not think about Deadly Blessing, for its several Latin chants (heard most impressively in the latter half of "Unwelcome Visitor/Fiery") use unconventional choral techniques, including the battling of vocal gender and crying, shrieking, and wailing females, that owe everything to The Omen. Horner's predictable handling of these sections makes Deadly Blessing an eye-rolling event, sending most listeners back to the lighter, pastoral theme. On the bootleg, that material amounts to about six minutes in length, ultimately pushing the mass of most entertaining tracks back to the previous Wolfen portion of the product. The "Pony Tail" bootleg is quite decent in its presentation, though, both scores surprisingly clear in their sound quality for 1981 recordings. Horner collectors will be intrigued by the combo album, but don't expect too much from it.

Wolfen: ***
Deadly Blessing: **
Album Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14 (in 90 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.33 (in 163,963 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.