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Review of Darkness Falls (Brian Tyler)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have always been impressed with Brian Tyler's ability to overachieve with immense ruckus in the horror genre, in which case Darkness Falls is a well respected and dynamic launching point.

Avoid it... if you quickly lose interest in Tyler's dramatic, lyrical themes of a brooding variety when they are surrounded by orchestral brutality of the most immense order.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Darkness Falls: (Brian Tyler) Not even the Tooth Fairy is immune to the whims of Hollywood's B-rate horror industry, as evidenced by the wretched 2003 film Darkness Falls. In its nonsensical plot, the movie postulates that a legend exists in a small New England town, one that is terrorized by a seemingly supernatural Tooth Fairy that, instead of giving gifts for kids' baby teeth, kills anyone who witnesses her doing her task. The demon was once an admired widow in town who was left disfigured in a fire and was lynched mistakenly after the temporary disappearance of a couple of local children. Generations later, she returns to kill innocent civilians at a rate appropriate for any movie that requires cheap slasher thrills to maintain audience interest. Fortunately, there's a lighthouse and a few intrepid survivors of the Tooth Fairy to incinerate the nasty bitch for good. Even if that plot wasn't ludicrous enough in its basic premise, its execution by novice director Jonathan Liebesman was completely senseless, generating one of the worst critical responses for any movie of that year. Although Darkness Falls managed to recoup its budget and launch Liebesman on to a marginal career, there is no question that the movie is plain awful. For a young composer trying to earn his way in Hollywood, however, the quality of the films were not a luxury to be chosen, and Brian Tyler essentially introduced himself to the industry through these avenues. He had already been writing overachieving music for low budget and subpar productions for a few years when the trio of Darkness Falls, The Hunted, and Children of Dune earned him the lasting recognition to sustain a career. Among his plethora of early horror genre works, Darkness Falls is often cited as a highlight for Tyler, despite being largely characteristic of his other projects from the early 2000's. In general, Tyler didn't stray far from his formula in these scores, and collectors of the composer's works will hear portions of The Hunted and Frailty in Darkness Falls. The benefit of Darkness Falls, however, is that Tyler packaged his horror ideas in perhaps his most immense form yet, foreshadowing the overblown explosiveness of Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem. At a time when horror genre music was often leagues behind Christopher Young's work, content to serve endless doses of cheap, ambient muck to basically imitate sound design, Tyler brought with him a touch of Jerry Goldsmith's style in the genre, highlighted by melodic complexity and crystal clear orchestrations.

There has to be something said for Tyler's choice to "overscore" a movie like Darkness Falls. This project didn't deserve such a dynamic orchestral score, but Tyler obviously approached it with enthusiasm and loyalty to a previous age in film music. The scope of the orchestral performances is very large, the ambience of the recording (conducted in a church) is immense, and the composition is full of thematic development. There are synthesizers and the electronic manipulation of organic sounds to be heard in several sequences, but this is primarily an orchestral work. Hyperactive brass and percussion sections are the highlights, matching some of Tyler's most brutal career action and horror music. Like Children of Dune, this score is somewhat of a sampler of Tyler's capabilities, too, spanning a wide range of emotional appeal. While the absolutely massive theme for the horror sequences in Darkness Falls is the most memorable of the lot, Tyler's drama and suspense ideas merit your attention as well. Technically the primary theme is a descending series of phrases that connects this score to Goldsmith's The Haunting and Trevor Jones' The Last of the Mohicans (with a touch of Joel McNeely's The Avengers thrown in during "Overhead," a slightly more hip passage with slight contemporary loops), heard throughout "Darkness Falls" and in several different contexts throughout, including the evocative statement in "The Mask," before appearing as an interlude in "End Titles." Softer on the ears is a pretty, ascending theme for keyboards and woodwinds in "One Kiss" and "Blood Red Herring." A mysterious theme of suspicion marks the scenes of quiet uncertainty, its alternating notes sometimes existing underneath the main theme (as in "Interrogatorio"). In Tyler's methods of expressing these melodies, it's difficult not to get the feeling that he was directly channeling Goldsmith's instrumental techniques. John Ottman occasionally attempted the same thing at the time, but Tyler really did manage to nail such associations. Rarely did Goldsmith ever build his rhythmic mayhem to such earth-shattering proportions, however, and Darkness Falls remains an exhibit of Tyler's tendency to go over the top when stirring up scares of a fantasy nature. At the time, Darkness Falls was heralded as a near classic by film music fans, but as Tyler has extended its sound into other works over the subsequent decade, it's lost a bit of its mystique. Because the film tanked, the 48-minute album isn't in abundance, and be aware that it arranges its tracks out of chronological order as per Tyler's usual insistence upon placing his favorite cues at the start. There's enough quality material here to have merited a proper narrative arrangement, but be careful of the hype surrounding this impressive but ultimately stifling score.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 48:21

• 1. Evil Rises (2:26) • 2. Darkness Falls (2:33) • 3. Eye Contact (1:50) • 4. Interrogatorio (2:13) • 5. A Bit Crispy (1:22) • 6. 25 Words or Less (1:41) • 7. Stay in the Light (1:22) • 8. Lose a Tooth (1:31) • 9. Der Zylinder (2:58) • 10. One Kiss (1:57) • 11. Let There Be Light Sort Of (1:08) • 12. We Are Safe In Here (0:37) • 13. We Are Not Safe In Here (0:43)

• 14. Aftermath (1:29) • 15. Overhead (0:57) • 16. Consultation (2:12) • 17. Utter Darkness (1:28) • 18. That Has Got to Hurt (1:25) • 19. Kyle and Michael (2:30) • 20. Perception Tank (1:39) • 21. Blood Red Herring (0:44) • 22. Meet the Tooth Fairy (2:49) • 23. Reading the Legend (0:44) • 24. Is This Kyle Walsh? (1:53) • 25. The Mask (1:03) • 26. End Titles (7:07)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a short note from the director about the score.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Darkness Falls are Copyright © 2003, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/30/11 (and not updated significantly since).