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Review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (John Debney)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate even the more predictable, standard entries in
the orchestral scores of the 1990's reincarnation of the slasher genre.
Avoid it... if you expect John Debney's work here to exhibit an intelligence that elevates itself beyond the stereotypical noise that accompanies such films.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
I Know What You Did Last Summer: (John Debney) They thought it
was over... but no, there was more money to be made! The splashy teenage horror
flick I Know What You Did Last Summer breathed continued life into the
concept of the 1980's urban teen thriller genre. With this franchise paralleling
the Scream films (among others), young, impressionable audiences couldn't
get enough of the idea that out there, somewhere, is a deranged maniac who is going
to come and use some nasty tool to disembowel you. In this case, two young hunks
and two young babes (all of which moving on to pop culture careers of their own)
kill a man on an oceanfront rode in an automobile accident. They decide to dump him
in the ocean and hope nobody discovers the event, but when they are eventually
stalked and friends start dying, they begin to reconsider the choice they made.
Composer John Debney was fresh off of a typical comedy routine for that period in
his career, having finished Liar Liar just before tackling I Know What
You Did Last Summer. As stereotypical horror scores go, this one is a whopper.
Debney makes use of a frighteningly strong orchestral approach to create a highly
effective and thrilling listening experience. In the film, it extends the horror
felt by the lead franchise character (Julie) and her dumb, but somewhat guilty
friends to a convincingly realistic level, surpassing the expectation of trashy
electronic scores that existed for similarly minded films in their previous
generation. The John Carpenter approach to the genre (established, of course, with
his classic work for Halloween), sometimes utilizing a catchy theme but
always keeping the music grounded in pop culture by using synthetic sounds, was the
industry standard until the 1990's. Debney's choice of sound, however, takes the
typical minor key applications of horror master Christopher Young and elevates them
to a massive level. As can be expected, it is a very choppy and disturbed score,
with four distinct cues of soft, suspense-building music, six cues of similarly
built, foreshadowing suspense that is occasionally rocked by sudden blasts of
horror, and eleven cues of consistent, fully developed chase rhythms with pounding
percussion or slashing brass and strings.
In general, this score is a larger version of the slash and dash approach, but that still makes it very predictable music. The most enjoyable parts of I Know What You Did Last Summer are those with performances or manipulations of "Julie's Theme," the primary identity of the film. This opening cue, as well as "Homecoming" and "Missy's Story," easily support various, easily listenable woodwind, piano, or soft string versions of this theme. It is a creepy and melancholy theme, though it also conveys romantic and determined characteristics as well, making it an identity that rivals the best of Young's harmonic creations for the genre. Two grand uses of this theme appear in "Julie Takes a Cruise" and "Final Confrontation," as the character finally confronts her attacker. The material in between these tracks is sufficient as suspense and horror music, and although some of it sounds as though it could be stock-grade material, it is the type that can succeed in giving you the creeps if you listen to it late at night. With its straight-forward presentation, you can easily follow the plot of the film as every harsh brass crash represents a slash of the hook or other uncomfortable visual. These sections are unsettling on album, naturally, and could be difficult to tolerate for those who don't hold much value for standard usage of dissonance. As a whole, Debney's score for I Know What You Did Last Summer is not as rambunctious as The Relic, nor is it as brooding in lengthy portions. It functions, but offers little to excite on album. The statements of the main theme are enjoyable, albeit brief. Perhaps taking these three or four tracks and editing them in with a few of the more consistent action cues would be the best bet here, although the result would still amount to only eight to ten minutes of really solid and distinct stand-alone music. The score is not readily available on album; John Debney released it as the seventh album in his continuing series of promotional CDs that would please the composer's fans over the course of the 1990's. For most casual film music listeners, obtaining an original copy of this album will likely not be worth its cost (which was enormous at the time of the album's initial, limited release and has remained steady ever since due to the franchise's success). John Frizzell went on to score the inferior sequel. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 50:44
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes the following note (by an unknown author) about the
film and score:
Last summer four friends made a desperate pact to conceal a shocking secret. But now, someone has apparently learned the truth of their heinous act and the horror is starting again. There is an unknown avenger out there stalking them in a deadly game. Will he stop at terror - or is he out for revenge? So sets the stage for Columbia Pictures/Mandalay Entertainment's horror/thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer with a screenplay by Kevin Williamson whose last project was for the mega-hit Scream. Handling the scoring duties is Emmy winning composer John Debney. Coming off the recent success of Universal's blockbuster comedy Liar, Liar starring Jim Carrey and two Emmy nominations for the television pilot The Cape, John Debney is quickly becoming one of the most sought after composers in Hollywood. Still in his 30s, Debney has utilized both his classical training with a strong knowledge of contemporary sounds to create a wide range of musical styles depending on the project. Recent film credits include back-to-back projects with Peter Hyams; the contemporary action/adventure Sudden Death starring Jean Claude Van Damme in which Debney used a driving, techno-style score and Paramount's Science Fiction thriller, The Relic. For Renny Harlin's pirate adventure CutThroat Island starring Geena Davis and Matthew Modine, Debney created a large scale score recorded by the 120 piece London Symphony Orchestra along with a 60 voice choir. Debney's recent success follows on the heels of several projects for Steven Spielberg and Amblin Productions, which began with the ambitious two-hour drama Class of '61, directed by Gregory Hoblit and continued with the heroic theme and orchestral scores for Seaquest DSV (for which Debney won an Emmy for Best Main Title). These led to his first major feature, Amblin's Little Giants, a kid's football comedy. Debney's whimsical score for the lighthearted Bette Midler vehicle Hocus Pocus led to a unique three-picture deal at Disney."
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