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Review of Freddy vs. Jason (Graeme Revell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if a well-executed but very stereotypical orchestral horror score
appeals to your darker side's craving for clanging, flesh-tearing music.
Avoid it... if the prospect of hearing a predictable continuation of slasher cliches, no matter their crisp performance, bores you or wears on your nerves.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Freddy vs. Jason: (Graeme Revell) The Nightmare on Elm
Street and Friday the 13th movies have held loyal cult audiences since
1980, practically inventing the teenage slasher genre and opening the doors for
more modern incarnations like Scream and I Know What You Did Last
Summer. Despite a badly fading interest in the most recent films in both
original horror franchises, New Line Cinema offered the kind of merged equation
that led to similar combinations of familiar foes in other franchises. Fans found
the prospect of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees together in the same film to be
irresistible, and with Freddy resurrecting Jason and then battling him over
frightened teenage victims to slay (it never hurts for these films to have an
abundance of attractive meat to feed to their monsters), audiences propelled
Freddy vs. Jason to the number one spot atop the box office earnings list
for a week in the late summer season of 2003. The film exceeded most expectations
by enthusiasts of the two franchises, and so did the score by Graeme Revell. With
these two series running as long as they had been, it was difficult to maintain any
kind of continuity in relation to their music. They had never been known for their
superior scores, with only the later generation of offspring series eventually
handled by more popular composers of the horror genre (such as Marco Beltrami, John
Debney, and John Frizzell). Himself no stranger to this genre, Graeme Revell had
composed for his fair share of slasher-type films in his career. Most film music
collectors will likely recall Revell's space-age horror scores, but his affiliation
with cult, slasher thrillers here on Earth included Bride of Chucky, which
shared director Ronny Yu with Freddy vs. Jason. Unlike the Halloween
series, for which John Carpenter wrote a long-lasting piano theme that existed in
the minds of viewers for twenty years, neither Nightmare on Elm Street nor
Friday the 13th maintained the same kind of heightened musical identity.
Thus, Revell was presented a clean slate with which to begin for Freddy vs.
Jason. His response to the concepts was predictable, although the result was,
like the film, a little better than expected.
Revell manages to reference the earlier scores in the franchises by simply utilizing nearly every slasher/horror genre music cliche in the book. All of the instruments in the ensemble are emphasized throughout the score in their most stereotypically frightened performance aspects, but Revell allows that grouping of expected sounds to take on a greater life by pumping up the volume with the full City of Prague Philharmonic ensemble. Revell collectors are accustomed to hearing him incorporate bizarre instrumentation or vocals into his scores (sometimes having nothing to do with the musical genre at hand), but for Freddy vs. Jason, Revell's creativity is held within the expected boundaries of the genre. A piano rumbles elegantly in that balance between urban comfort and impending doom. Deep bass strings carry motifs ominously as victims are being stalked. A pounding timpani strikes as the villain approaches in menacing fashion. Loud brass shrieks, slurring on the opening edge in Don Davis methodology, accompany a sudden attack. Quivering violins mark the moments when a victim looks around a corner in terror. A solo woodwind swirls in the mist when it looks as though nothing is out there. An electric guitar explodes with power during frightening dream sequences. An array of synthesized, metallic grinding noises, with distorted bells tolling, crashes through the murky underscore. Distorted vocals from both little children and the voices of the villains themselves are mixed into the disharmony, ranging in personality from innocent singing to chants of "die, die, die." When you throw all of these elements together, you have a well-executed horror score. The overall product is enhanced by a generous quantity of action music, usually accompanying the two villains' battles with each other. Little outward thematic material is presented, however statements from the previous films are referenced (including some Harry Manfredini Friday the 13th material). The opening cue, "Legend," as well as the final battle on the dock, contains the only harmonious orchestral statements of motifs or themes, and these moments are easily the highlights. The score album (as opposed to the heavy metal song compilation with no score that was offered in the same month) features a satisfying amount of material from the film, ending just before the endless horror cliches fray on the nerves. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 42:38
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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