December 1999 Film Music CD Reviews

Film Music Editor: Ian Lace
Music Webmaster Len Mullenger


Don DAVIS House of Frankenstein   OST   PROMOTIONAL (no number asssigned)

(Note: In Europe this album is obtainable through Soundtracks direct or through Prometheus records) [60:48]




This oddball miniseries followed a real estate tycoon in search of the real Frankenstein's monster as a trophy. How does Hollywood buy these pitches? How does a composer see a pitch like that as full of musical opportunity? However these things come to be the bottom line is that Davis has written a cracking good tongue-in-cheek horror score. We know this guy to be well versed in film music genre. His Bound score is a brilliant take on Hitchcockian thriller stylings. For this, it's a splendid fusion of choral cliché with dissonant drama. Sort of Omen meets Matrix. There are fun parodies (one assumes!) throughout, such as the taster of O Fortuna in the "Main Title". Thankfully that doesn't overshadow what is a rather nice main theme. Its development is always interesting, especially in a melting pot cue such as "Dog Speed", with its twisting journey through each of the score's principal aspects. There's a curious disparity between the Gothic orchestrals and pulsing synths in certain places from one cue to the next, but it is a very nicely coherent listening experience on the whole. The pudding proof that this is to be taken less than seriously is the humorous track titles. If the series' pitch seem shard to swallow, how about "She's Not Hungary for Food"?

Reviewer

Paul Tonks


Reviewer

Paul Tonks


Reviews from previous months


Reviews carry sales links
but you can also purchase
from:







Return to Index