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| Shearmur |
Species II: (Edward Shearmur) For some viewers,
alien assimilation isn't complete without unrepentant sex, and the
filmmakers of the
Species franchise saw fit to explore the
possibility that aliens seek to infiltrate and defeat our planet through
violent procreation. The 1998 sequel witnessed a team of astronauts
returning to Earth having been infected with an alien form that turns
them into spreaders of the species via sex that results in quick,
abdomen-busting births. Repulsive violence merging the worst of the
Alien and
Venom franchises offered nothing for the
betterment of mankind. Model Natasha Henstridge was the primary sex
object of the first two entries, though she is but a foil in the sequel
for the main astronaut, a male, who fornicates his way to dozens of
quick alien children before his annihilation by survivors of the first
film. While the original 1995 film enjoyed financial success,
Species
II was an absolute disaster that had to rely upon home video returns
to justify its existence. One of the few intriguing aspects of
Species aside from Henstridge's physical form was the film's
original score by Christopher Young, long a rarity on album. Peter
Medak, the director of
Species II, had been attracted to the
music of young composer Edward Shearmur for a few years as he developed
out of a collaboration with Michael Kamen. Shearmur was still several
years away from hitting his stride in his brief mainstream Hollywood
career, and he and the director recognized fairly quickly that Young's
music for
Species was beyond the comfort zone of Shearmur at the
time. With that reality conceded,
Species II utilizes none of
Young's material from the first film, which is a massive shame given
that the Mars sequence could have greatly benefitted from Young's
alluring fantasy theme. Instead, Shearmur provides a far more generic
score, matching orchestral and synthetic tones without any of the
mystery or sophistication of the highlights from Young's work. Female
vocal effects do provide an eeriness factor here, though, countered by
several electronic manipulations that are frightfully annoying,
including screeching electric guitar effects. The orchestra is handled
decently in standard horror mode, though percussion and electronics are
sometimes terribly mixed to the forefront, as in "Eve Breaks Out."
Shearmur's thematic handling is minimally sufficient, but these ideas
are handled poorly throughout, with a truly underwhelming summary in
"End Titles."
The generic main theme in Shearmur's
Species II
represents the male lead, and pieces of the ascending and descending
phrasing generate offshoots in the action cues. It's foreshadowed at
0:32 into "Landing," achieves greater clarity late in "On the Surface,"
and has its fragments at war with each other late in the awful sex cue,
"Debutantes." It rampages at 2:29 into another sex cue, "Melissa Goes
Down" and battles with Shearmur's offspring theme in the first half of
"Patrick's Suicide." Providing false comfort in its soft performance on
strings during most of "Patrick Kills Dad," this main theme's fragments
descent throughout "Ceiling Lift" in rhythmic form and become purely
militaristic at 1:05 into "Eve Breaks Out" over an annoying snare mix.
The descending portion of the theme resolves at the end of
"Confrontation" in brass defeat. Echoes persist on oboe in the middle of
"Gamble Away" as one last reminder before a nasty crescendo, and the
idea receives only one brief statement at 1:56 into "End Titles" on
strings before ambience rules that cue. Henstridge's Eve alien,
meanwhile, is represented by a tepid piano theme that debuts at 0:06
into "I'm Human Too" and is reprised similarly throughout "I Want to
Help" without any development. It's buried in the heavy suspense of
"Patrick Breaks Away," struggles to enunciate itself in "Eve & Gamble,"
and shifts to somber woodwinds throughout "Eve Won't Help." The Eve
theme returns one last time on piano to complete the character in
"Aftermath" and opens "End Titles" on that instrument again without any
passion whatsoever. The final theme is for the male lead's nasty alien
offspring that accumulate quickly after his prolific copulating. This
creepy lullaby on bells and voices in "Kids to the Barn" shifts to a
militaristic tone in the first half of "Patrick's Suicide." It returns
to ethereal tones in "Burial/Kids," emerges again in hints late in the
horror of "Eve & Patrick," helps inform the action opening of
"Confrontation," and transforms into a restrained, hopeful brass
rendition early in "Gamble Away." Some listeners won't even notice the
offspring theme while others may only take the piano tonality from
Eve's. The main theme shows promise in its brassy action enunciation,
but the score's themes are otherwise a wasted collection. Shearmur
contributes competent horror techniques when needed, but the score had
all the makings for a far more engaging listening experience. The
original 1998 album with two songs and 30 minutes of score was replaced
by a limited 2020 Intrada Records album of 71 minutes that is still
missing a fair amount of additional recorded material for the film. But
only very few will care, for this underwhelming score cannot sustain the
length of the 71-minute product. There's no reason to sprout tentacles
for this one.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert of the 1998 TVT album includes no extra information about
the score or film. That of the 2020 Intrada product contains details about both.
