Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #703
Written 7/30/98, Revised 4/1/07
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Buy it... if you appreciate John Ottman's often extreme
instrumental creativity in his horror and fantasy music, regardless of
how emotionally draining the music can be.
Avoid it... if the Gothic beauty that lures you to this genre in
Ottman's career requires lengthy statements of straight, harmonic
elegance to justify your attention.
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| Ottman |
Snow White: A Tale of Terror: (John Ottman) Few
people who fondly remember the Disney version of this Brothers Grimm
tale will actually recall the fact that it is nothing less than a horror
story. While many elements of the story were translated into the famous
cartoon, most of the juicier parts were not, and it is this wrong that
is tackled in the doomed Michael Cohn live-action adaptation. The 1997
production of Snow White: A Tale of Terror is far more true to
the original story, placing the wicked stepmother queen, her new lord
husband, and an ever-increasingly-beautiful Snow White coming of age in
a more proper 16th Century fantasy setting. Even here, though, liberties
are taken with the ruffians from whom the dwarfs were originally molded
for the cartoon, and some character role-shifting muddies the waters.
The methods of attempted murder by the evil queen remain thankfully
intact, though. Despite placing Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill in the
parental roles, the film was not considered successful enough to sustain
a theatrical release, and was shown instead on the Showtime cable
network without practically any fanfare. This circumstance of release
was a great disappointment to composer John Ottman, who only composed
the score for (and did not edit) the film. One of the reasons for that
disappointment was the fact that Snow White: A Tale of Terror
represented one of the few times that the recording and post-production
process for a score had gone really smoothly. Ottman was also likely
anxious to expand upon the attention that he had brought to his career
with his score for The Usual Suspects a few years earlier. The
year 1997 would represent the arrival of Ottman's large-scale horror and
intrigue sound, carrying over into several more years of endeavors in
the genre before finally breaking into mainstream action in the 2000's.
In many ways, Snow White: A Tale of Terror would be the score
that set the table for the majority of "Ottmanisms" that the composer
would draw from in the following efforts, with every moment of this
original work oozing with trademarks that the composer was just
establishing.
Whether or not the score is actually listenable for the
purposes of enjoyment depends on how morbid your musical tastes are. If
Ottman succeeds in only one aspect of
Snow White: A Tale of
Terror, it is the sheer oppression and nightmarish stylings of the
music's attitude. This is a ferocious and mean score. It embodies the
clever and freakish qualities of the wicked stepmother while using the
unstable Gothic beauty of the orchestral group and choir to lure you in.
The score never sustains a thematic performance in the kind of obvious
harmony that will attract many listeners, but it enchants with its
remarkable soundscape. The two primary themes are mutated with such
effectiveness that even attentive ears may not notice their many
fragments. Only in the opening theme and the grand closing of "What Have
You Done to Me?" does Ottman satisfy the desire for elegant statements,
leaving the wild instrumentation of the remainder of the score to define
Snow White: A Tale of Terror better than a theme alone can
accomplish. Like the whims of the queen, the score shifts mood almost
randomly, utilizing a variety of plucking of strings, percussive
tapings and ripping, and downright creepy singular and group vocals to
constantly manipulate the story's intrigue. The unpredictable frequency
and types of usage of the ensemble can be difficult to enjoy in a
sustained listening, especially when they unpleasantly bubble along at a
nearly inaudible levels and tease you with the next loud metallic or
forceful web of tangled vocal chants. Constant changes in tempo and a
staggering of keys keep you on edge outside of the opening two and
closing two cues on the album, which offer the only non-threatening
performances. It is a score that reminded many people at the time of the
kind of brazen horror techniques that some had anticipated from Danny
Elfman, though the whimsical flight and orchestral creativity
Snow
White: A Tale of Terror clearly, in retrospect, place the effort
squarely in Ottman territory. Much of the delightful instrumentation,
such as the harpsichord and acoustic guitar, would appear at roughly the
same time in Ottman's outstanding
Incognito. Despite being an
enormously draining and tiring listening experience,
Snow White: A
Tale of Terror is a recommended album.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.17
(in 35 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 21,480 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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