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Review of Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (Nerida Tyson-Chew)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're tired of non-descript, formula horror scores
and seek a composer new to the genre's mainstream transform her novel
instrumental ideas into a massive jungle-worthy score.
Avoid it... if you have adverse reactions to horror scores that use a sheer wall of orchestral sound to scare you and instead prefer those that haunt with thematic development and tonal tragedy.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid: (Nerida
Tyson-Chew) It's fitting that the blood orchids of the jungles of Borneo
only bloom once every seven years. Perhaps this means that audiences
will get another Anaconda movie once every seven years as well.
The original 1997 film in the series was actually quite reasonable
entertainment, featuring a decent cast and one vicious, giant snake
posing itself as the ultimate villain of the jungle. For the 2004
sequel, a ridiculous line of coincidental events causes the need for a
large group of city-dwellers to go to the lair of the giant snakes once
again. If you want to have any fun with the film whatsoever, you have to
dismiss the dozens of completely illogical aspects to the film's premise
and simply accept that these people really are motivated (though
underequipped) to go searching for another blood orchid sample and face
the treacherous snakes. And this time, of course, there are plenty of
these foul creatures, so the film can pace itself nicely by having one
of its cast members eaten at regular intervals. Composer Randy Edelman
provided an adequately engaging score for Anaconda, but with the
nearly complete switch of cast and crew for Anacondas: The Hunt for
the Blood Orchid, director Dwight Little (whose mostly television
background has obvious impacts on the film's camera movements) hired
relatively unknown Australian composer Nerida Tyson-Chew for the scoring
duties on the sequel. Involved mostly with Australian television
projects since the early 1990's, Tyson-Chew had received considerable
acclaim and awards recognition for Richard Franklin's Hotel
Sorrento and had already been involved as a music editor,
orchestrator, producer, conductor, or composer in a wide range of
genres, from Ferngully 2 to Alien 3. Tyson-Chew's best
known work for American audiences had been her contribution to "Batman:
The Animated Series" on television, and Anacondas: The Hunt for the
Blood Orchid represented her first solo assignment for a major
motion picture. Her credentials hail from USC in Los Angeles (having
studied under the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, and Bruce
Broughton), and her reputation had been built upon her experimentation
with unorthodox methods of combining orchestration, choir, lyrics, and
solos into her own style of writing.
Tyson-Chew's ability to stir up an impressively fresh sound for Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid in an otherwise tired, cliche-driven genre of film is remarkable. She manages to create a ruckus in a fashion remarkably similar to what Brian Tyler accomplished in several scores during the same decade, but with arguably more unique results. After you've heard six or seven low-grade horror scores involving giant monsters, you realize that there are only a certain number of ways in which you can create an appropriate musical atmosphere for that situation. How Tyson-Chew handles this challenge is by creating a score largely centered around the ethnic elements of Borneo, with nohkran and shakuhachi flutes fluttering in the higher ranges while diverse arrays of percussion, both in drums and in non-traditional metallic elements, constantly rumble and clang in the lower ranges. The ambient flute work will be familiar to John Williams' two Jurassic Park scores in many cues. A full orchestral ensemble performs with considerable power in Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, distinguishing the score by it sheer presence of depth in the moments of anticipation as well as, of course, the magnitude of force that it can create during pounding and strikingly rhythmic action sequences. Also of interest is how Tyson-Chew has layered the score, with the overwhelming Asian drums resonating deeply in the background while the woodwinds dance wildly in the mid-ranges and the chopping strings and crystal-clear brass occupy the forefront. Other spine-tingling percussion meanders through those three levels, and the resulting wall of horrifying sound is strangely enticing even during its most brutal moments. Her application of sampled effects to the mix is surprisingly well handled, adding to the atmosphere of dread without allowing any of the individual samples to distract from the whole. Many of these are sound effects that you would classify in the "creepy" category, the kind of sounds that an amusement park would reach for to supplement their horror-related attractions. In this case, the samples chosen are related in some way to a jungle environment, sometimes reminiscent of Predator. The use of these noises, as well as deep percussion, to emulate the growl of a large animal (presumably the sounds of the snakes in preparation for a nice meal), creates a remarkably fresh soundscape. The score's obvious weakness is its lack of well developed thematic ideas. The "Opening Titles/Jungle Floor" cue contains a subtle brass theme that is extremely similar to the style with which John Williams used to write his disaster epic motifs of the 1970's. After a forceful reprise in "Elixir Perrinia Immortalis," that theme is not developed satisfyingly, however, until the climactic "Face-Off" cue at the end. Tyson-Chew does feature a secondary motif of romantic inclinations for moments of awe, however, using dramatic, tonal shifts that represent the score's most pleasant material. This aspect of the score is most poignantly conveyed at the start of "Elixir Perrinia Immortalis" and revisited in "Almost a Kiss" and "Totem," all of these instances reminding of Alan Williams' music for IMAX productions of the 1990's. The ethnic woodwinds of the score are at their best during these passages, "Stealing the Fruit" brilliantly mixing their exotic tones with the ensemble for another romantic interlude to open the cue. The remainder of the score is dedicated to the sense of relentless ambition that drives either the snakes or the quest for eternal life, and it is here that the score transcends its genre. Several downright kick-ass sequences of rhythmic mayhem allow the drums and brass to intermingle at rates of speed and levels of brutality that will impress you with their ability to make convincing noise without really going anywhere or accomplishing any larger musical construct. A well-balanced mix of the players in these sequences, too, causes even the low-level groans and snarls of percussion and base strings to be easily audible despite the best efforts of the brass section to steal the show. In the end, Tyson-Chew's score follows the formula development for the genre, lacking thematic complexity and mellowing to a somewhat comforting finale in the closing cue. On paper, it may very well have been an average horror score, and if you don't care for constant chasing and sudden strikes of the full ensemble, then definitely skip it. But Tyson-Chew has done something here that needs recognition; her score sounds as though it was performed and recorded in a jungle, creating an authentic and distinct sound with her varied specialty instruments and mixing process. The quantity and quality of ideas in the music for Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, regardless of the fact that the achievement was lost in a forgotten film, represents a rare horror effort that is enjoyable because of its sheer noise-factor rather than its gloomy, tonal tragedy. It proves that being outwardly obnoxious sometimes works. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 61:05
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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