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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of Final Destination Bloodlines (Tim Wynn)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... to arrange half an hour of truly superb melodic material
representing the suspense and drama portions of this faithful emulation
of genre techniques by Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young.
Avoid it... if you appreciate Tim Wynn's nods to those masters and Shirley Walker's theme for the original film but cannot tolerate the nasty and aggressive personality of the horror portions despite their enthusiastic performance inflection.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Final Destination Bloodlines: (Tim Wynn) Among the
gore fetish franchises of the early 21st Century, that of Final
Destination is among the more bizarrely successful. The common
ruthless villain of its tales is Death itself, postulating that once
people are slated to die, fate will force it upon them. It's a
compelling concept, but the franchise earns its stripes by showing young
people dying in hideously unlikely and violent ways. The first five
films all came between 2000 and 2011, and although the course had been
run, a 2025 reboot of a sort took a slightly different angle. The plot
of Final Destination Bloodlines suggests that a party of people
atop a structure that is, essentially, the Seattle Space Needle was
destined to die in an explosion and collapse of the tower. One woman
prevents it from happening, and the clock starts ticking as Death
eventually reclaims the lives of all the survivors and their dependents,
leaving the family of the savior for last. The deaths in that family are
the focus of this story, and they suffer all the usual, grisly demises
that define the concept. The killings are all illogically stupid as per
usual, but that didn't stop the film from earning the best praise of all
six movies and performing surprisingly well at the box office. Songs are
a vital element of the soundtrack for the movie, and the classic "Shout"
by The Isley Brothers plays a big role in the narrative. Around them,
however, is a lively original score by American composer Tim Wynn, who
had toiled in the realm of video games and television for two decades
prior to this assignment. His feature film work had been limited in
scope, but he had collaborated with the two directors of Final
Destination Bloodlines and lobbied them to allow the studio to hire
him for this project when learned of it. His enthusiasm for the
opportunity to join the franchise led him to write his main theme and
several cues for the concept as a demo of his take on the concept, and
that intrepid act earned him what is the most major score of his career
to this point. With so much time having passed between the first five
films and this one, it's hard not to appreciate what Shirley Walker and
Brian Tyler accomplished for those movies. Even if the music wasn't high
art, it serviced the stories well enough to be remembered, especially
Walker's contribution for the first three entries.
Walker's strategy in the franchise was more orchestral, whereas Tyler's infused an increasing synthetic presence, along with more modern post-processing. Wynn clearly made a strategic choice to walk a line halfway between the two styles, and he succeeds with skill. While not very experienced in the suspense and horror genres thus far for the big screen, he credits studying under Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young early in his career for helping him find the right techniques to access. Those composers are precisely the perfect inspiration to have in the genre, no doubt, and Wynn channels both quite intelligently. His use of chord shifts reflects the harmonic tendencies of Goldsmith, especially as he moves fluently between major and minor modes for intrigue. Fluttering woodwinds and a very high string presence atop the soundscape remind of Young's methods of creepiness. From both sources of inspiration, a sense of propulsion towards the inevitable conclusion is very well conveyed, like flowing water. There is a sharp synthetic edge to some cues, but these electronics are masterfully engrained into the mix. Wynn even incorporates sampled sounds from an actual medical device and scraping effects to punctuate certain scenes. Critically, the orchestra is extremely motivated in its reverb-friendly performance inflection, and the outright action has aggressive brass techniques that keep the cues interesting despite their discord. It's a work that sounds nasty at times, and you have to admire such personality in the end result. He also wastes few opportunities to state one of this several themes for Final Destination Bloodlines, their progressions sometimes bleeding into one another. He's also not afraid to overlap them in ways that suggest both synergy and battle, several sequences impressively suggesting three themes in short succession. His main theme is a gem of Goldsmith resurrection, and it is joined by a family theme that represents the desperation of the characters attempting to cheat Death. On the other side, you receive a fantastic identity for Death and a frequently associated motif for fate that shares some of its constructs with the main theme. Finally, you also receive reprises of Walker's original theme for Final Destination in a cameo role for the recurring character that returns for one final performance. Together, these themes make nearly every moment of this sequel score interesting even if the tone is horrifically challenging to enjoy. The main theme of Final Destination Bloodlines is a wonderfully propulsive horror identity with harmonically dramatic chord shifts. It reminds of Goldsmith's Basic Instinct and contains two parts, each dramatically compelling and proving once again that really good horror scores can be tonally beautiful as well. Expect to find yourself combining these performances into an attractive suite. Featuring fully at 0:20 "Bloodlines (End Titles)" in a massive symphonic performance, this idea punctuates the horror in the middle of "The MRI" against medical device-like tones and emerges quietly from the Death and fate material in "Bludworth's Goodbye." It toys with the Death theme early in "Escape to the Compound" before a full performance in panic and briefly overcomes the Death theme in the electronically prickly "The Plan." More impressive is its full expression of thumping rhythmic fussing "Drive to Iris," which continues in its unnerved rhythmic duties in the chillingly great, ticking time-bomb of "Connecting the Dots." The theme almost gets off the ground with its rhythm in the latter half of "I Screwed Up the Order" and attempts to gain some confidence at the electronically embellished end of "Your Plan is Nuts." Its accompanying rhythm alone occupies part of "The Book" and "The Compound," and the theme struggles against the horror a minute into "End Credits Suite" prior to returning to its full form in the middle of the cue for two performances. The family theme provides the other noteworthy moments of compelling drama in the work, a redemptive and yearning string identity that actually dares audiences to care about the core characters despite their fate. Faintly heard throughout "We Can't Give In" with increasing intensity, this theme builds more emotional connections in "Two of Us" and achieves its prettiest, melancholy performance from strings and piano in "The Skyview." It cries out during the action of "Waterworld," builds to an urgently worried ensemble rendition of tonal beauty late in "Meet Bludworth," and strives for hope in the engaging string contemplation of "Resurrection." It turns dark on glassy bowl tones in "Graveyard," twists in agony from strings in "Premonition," reduces to be barely evident in "Psycho Grandma," and offers some soothing keyboard and string solace in the first half of "Look After Paco." Don't expect this family theme to prevail in the end, of course, but its appearances are appreciably voluminous, and they compliment the main theme's reserved agony well enough to keep the listening experience dynamic. On the darker side of Final Destination Bloodlines, Wynn coins an excellent identity for Death, a slower, menacing representation of impending doom that blasts with full force on low brass at the start of "Bloodlines (End Titles)." It turns to various ensemble sections nicely in the swirling first half of "Bludworth's Goodbye," deliberately stalks the latter half of "Escape to the Compound," and stews beneath the family material in "Two of Us" and guides a stinger at the end. The idea can serve rhythmically as well, which it does to set a sense of the inevitable in "The Plan." This idea accelerates during "Lawnmower Man" and "I See You" as Death approaches, becomes more brazenly open in "Decoding Iris' Book," claims victory with a crescendo late in "Resurrection," and triumphs with gusto at the end of "Tower of Terror." Inescapably intertwined with the fate theme in "Tempting Death," the Death theme interrupts meandering light drama in "Technically You Weren't Dead" for more inevitability, informs the momentous close of "Premonition," and opens "End Credits Suite" on low strings and taunts later themes in the arrangement. The fate theme, which seems to bleed together with an idea for the penny in the story, is a direct sibling to the main theme, an elongated form of the same idea. It's heard on violins at the start of "Elevator Ride" and developed throughout the cue, shifts for kinder drama early in "We Can't Give In," and proceeds on mournful cellos half a minute into "Bludworth's Goodbye," where it forms a rhythm for the Death theme. It closes "Decoding Iris' Book" with uncertainty, flows out of the main theme's rhythm late in "Connecting the Dots," previews the Death theme late in "Resurrection," and overlaps the Death theme in cyclical form on high strings in "Tempting Death." Whining in the latter half of "Premonition," this motif achieves a massive moment of fright in the first half of "The Collapse," goes subtle for a moment late in "The Compound," and dances with the Death theme in the second half of "End Credits Suite." The returning Walker theme from 2000 is applied to the Bludworth character played by the late Tony Todd. This treat closes "Bloodlines (End Titles)" with a single phrase, maneuvers into dramatic sorrow at the end of "Bludworth's Goodbye," reprises the "Main Titles" cue from the first film early in "Meet Bludworth," and reminds briefly at 0:30 into "Decoding Iris' Book." The end credits make the point of shifting from the Shout song to the score for one final Bludworth theme performance. Overall, Final Destination Bloodlines is a very fine horror score with distinct Goldsmith flavor. Its album provides the cues out of order, which harms the listening experience, but the opening track is among the best of the year. Shave the album down to 30 minutes of outstanding material for the win.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 65:58
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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