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Review of Untraceable (Christopher Young)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you want to add yet another creepy but undeniably attractive Christopher Young thriller theme of cold beauty to your collection of the composer's many similar ideas.

Avoid it... if you expect the rest of the score for Untraceable to exhibit the kind of instrumental creativity heard in Young's other suspense and horror scores of the late 2000's.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Untraceable: (Christopher Young) The premise of Gregory Hoblit's 2008 thriller Untraceable showed much promise, resurrecting the topic of the public's fascination with bizarre human torture rituals from Seven and revising them for the Internet age. The villain of the story creates Saw-like concoctions to progressively torture his victims in accordance to how many people in America visit the live web cam feed of the event. The tech gurus of the FBI pursue him from their offices in Oregon, eventually coming far too close to his scheme for their own comfort. Several major flaws in the plot struck fatal blows to Untraceable, however, including a cliche-driven ending of retribution that panders to the lowest common denominator of the genre. Before the cheesy conclusion however, a handful of immense logical fallacies cripple the film, ranging from the not entirely accurate explanations of how the IP of a site's domain name can rotate so quickly and without means of shutting it down (the screenwriters could have learned a thing or two by how the communists in China control their networks) and the abysmal public relations choices taken by the authorities that only draw more attention to the killer's site and thus hasten the victims' deaths. Then there's the whole issue about whether viewers of the site can be tracked down and charged as accomplices to a murder. The concept had merit, especially in its commentary about just how sick society has become (outside of the snuff audiences), but Untraceable made innumerous poor choices in its execution. The score for the film represented one such error after the production actually made a wise move by securing the services of horror and thriller veteran Christopher Young. Unfortunately, despite the composer's workmanlike endeavor for Untraceable, the score was extremely marginalized in its application to the film. Just as subtle shades of color in the film were missing due to photography of high saturation and contrast levels, the soundscape pushed Young's score so far into the background that you are led to believe that most of the conversational scenes (especially those at the outset of the film) are absent any music until you vaguely begin to hear Young's trademark piano work for a brief moment of two. Appreciating the score on album is definitely the best route when considering Untraceable, though despite Young's usual effective techniques for the genre, his work here misses a few opportunities in the creativity department that are surprising considering how clever both The Uninvited and Drag Me to Hell would be the following year.

While Young may not explore in Untraceable the kind of fiendishly unique instrumental or vocal character that attracts repeat listens to his 2009 horror scores, there are no major detractions in the work. It features the usual hypnotic title theme of morbidly depressing beauty commonplace in the composer's similar ventures. Also familiar is the ensemble, defined for the most part by piano solos and an abundance of harsh string work. The primary theme is a surprisingly agile and almost elegant progression of alternating notes that plays something of a cat and mouse game within its own length. Its harmonious appeal is a cold as any great Young theme for the genre, though it does conclude its main phrases with chord movements reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's themes for equivalent scenarios. As with The Uninvited, the opening and closing titles contain the chilly performances of the pretty theme, with fragments of the idea serving as respites from the more challenging atmosphere of suspense in the middle portions of the score. The second cue, "Missing Flowers," also extends this idea, though with a seemingly different ensemble mix. The piano typically handles the theme, though Young also inserts what sounds like a cross between (or combination of) a cimbalom and acoustic guitar to give it a gritty personality. The rest of the score is understandably absent much warmth, but it surprises with its anonymous handing of the actual mind games on screen. Young does incorporate synthetic elements into his ensemble, but they are limited to straight dissonant atmospherics of a ghostly nature. While the composer does seem to prefer to handle the bulk of the duties in his thrillers with organic instrumentation, the techno-savvy plotline could really have benefited from some "Goldsmithian" synthetics, especially in the pinpoint references to bouncing IP traces and the likes. You can't really denigrate what Young chose to provide for the score's midsection, however, because it works (when you can hear it on screen). The villain's actions are addressed with a tapping cymbal rhythm that not only denotes a ticking time bomb, but also a hunt of electronic circuitry, culminating in a forceful merging with chopping strings in "Blinking the Code." But Untraceable is a score that could have been much better, and even veteran collectors of Young's music in this genre may be left without much interest in anything outside of the opening and closing themes. The physical CD release of the score from Lakeshore contains 45 minutes of music (about the right amount to present for this material) but the label's iTunes digital offering appends the theme written by Danny Lohner (Renholder) for the website in the story. Concentrate on the 8 to 10 minutes of eerie thematic material from Untraceable and discard the rest.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 44:56

• 1. Untraceable (2:23) • 2. Missing Flowers (2:43) • 3. Death After Life After Death (2:42) • 4. Session Locked (6:37) • 5. Acid Decomposition (5:30) • 6. Goudlylocks (2:35)

• 7. Viewer Executions (4:14) • 8. Net Nuts (2:50) • 9. Incinerated in Cement (7:22) • 10. Blinking the Code (4:51) • 11. Kill With Me (4:20) • 12. Kill With Me (Website Theme)* (3:54)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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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 Untraceable are Copyright © 2008, Lakeshore Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/29/10 (and not updated significantly since).