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Review of Species II (Edward Shearmur)

1998 TVT Album

2020 Intrada Album

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only if you relish the mood of mundane horror music, Edward Shearmur providing basically sufficient thematic and textural material for a film that deserved no better.

Avoid it... if you expect Shearmur to be in top form with Species II, his themes underdeveloped in the narrative and his mix sometimes emphasizing the most obnoxious elements of his ensemble.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

1998 TVT Records Album:
Total Time: 42:15

• 1. Don't Answer the Door - performed by B.B. King (5:09) • 2. Carrera Rapida - performed by Apollo Four Forty (6:48) • 3. The Red Planet (3:06) • 4. On the Surface (5:19) • 5. Mating Season Begins (3:02) • 6. First Blood (1:42) • 7. Starting a Family (1:52) • 8. Pursuit (4:17) • 9. The Cocoons (1:50) • 10. In the Barn (4:40) • 11. Eve (4:30)

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2020 Intrada Album:
Total Time: 71:27

• 1. Landing (3:08) • 2. On the Surface (4:05) • 3. Slime Attack (4:23) • 4. Blisters (1:16) • 5. I'm Human Too (1:00) • 6. Patrick's Speech (1:03) • 7. Debutantes (3:15) • 8. Kids to the Barn (0:31) • 9. Orinski Gets It (3:44) • 10. Press Meets Eve (0:48) • 11. Off to the Asylum (2:32) • 12. Melissa Goes Down (3:39) • 13. Gamble Countdown (1:29) • 14. Patrick's Suicide (2:37) • 15. Restless Eve (0:23)

• 16. Burial/Kids (1:02) • 17. I Want to Help (0:30) • 18. Supermarket Chase (5:17) • 19. Radar Love (1:19) • 20. Patrick Breaks Away (2:32) • 21. Eve & Gamble (2:28) • 22. Patrick Kills Dad (3:04) • 23. Eve Won't Help (0:48) • 24. Ceiling Lift (1:17) • 25. Eve Breaks Out (3:33) • 26. Eve & Patrick (2:46) • 27. Confrontation (4:36) • 28. Aftermath (1:25) • 29. Gamble Away (1:17) • 30. End Titles (4:54)

NOTES & QUOTES:

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.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Species II are Copyright © 1998, 2020, TVT Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/21/22 (and not updated significantly since).