SOUNDTRACK-EXPRESS.COM
Evidently one of the comedy-horror films that
I missed in the mid-80's (the era that brought us the cult classic,
Gremlins, amongst others), Re-Animator is sort of Night of the
Living Frankenstein, with much tongue in cheek, gore and dark
humour. It doesn't honestly strike me as the kind of film that
anyone would remember, although it probably falls under the
perennial description of cult classic by virtue of being better
than anyone would dare hope. To my surprise, it appears that
Richard Band's score caused a (very!) minor controversy due
to its Bernard Herrmann influence, or more specifically, the
main theme which is largely based Psycho, with a hint of Jerry
Goldsmith in Joe Dante mood and a dark comedy theme sandwiched
in between. It works moderately well as part homage and part
parody, although the mixing of the Herrmann motifs and Band's
own tune could have been a little more inventive rather than
simply inserting Band's tune in amongst the Herrmann ideas.
After a dissonant Prologue, the Main Title, rather unsurprisingly,
introduces Band's quirky, pre-Danny Elfman melody which doesn't
seem to appear without the Psycho motifs; something of a disappointment
as it's a nifty tune. In the liner notes, Band comments that
a tongue in cheek score was wanted, but for my money, the approach
is fairly straight laced - not exactly terrifying, but the early
tracks are quite creepy, particularly the surprisingly lengthy
The Turning Point. Only when the main theme appears is the pretense
of a serious horror score undermined, although the two ideas
work quite happily alongside each other. The album is rounded
out by an interesting interview with Band; I don't know if the
album constitutes the entire score, but the length of the music
at around 35 minutes seems just about right.
As mentioned, Band's score is comparable to Goldsmith's scores
for Joe Dante in spirit and just as enjoyable as many, even
if it doesn't match the deliciously sardonic heights of Gremlins,
although the token Love Theme is similar to The Piper Dreams
for The Omen. The inside notes (aside from an entirely redundant
paragraph from Harry Knowles) have some interesting comments,
about the only production fault is the mix which makes the orchestra
sound like it's playing out of a box, neither a natural concert
acoustic nor a clean, upfront, immediate sound. The Herrmann
influence is both a help and a hindrance, mainly because Band's
own music isn't nearly as good as Herrmann's. That is not meant
as a slight on Band in any way, Psycho is a classic score by
one of Hollywood's finest composers and Re-animator is a throwaway
comedy horror, but even so, the result is that the most memorable
parts of the score are Herrmann.
|
