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| Young |
The Grudge 2: (Christopher Young) Just when you
thought that humanity had discovered every motive one person could use
to justify killing another, Takashi Shimizu and his Japanese franchise
of
Ju-on movies decided to whip up a new curse with which to
baffle investigators. Translated into the series of
The Grudge
films in America, the concept is little more than an excuse to take a
decent haunted house story and subject it to slasher movie cliches and
torture fetish displays that do nothing to serve the betterment of
mankind. While the original adaptation of
The Grudge to the
United States in 2004 was accepted by critics and audiences as a decent
recapitulation of the basic premise,
The Grudge 2 in 2006 was
universally shredded by reviewers and suffered one of the most stunning
drop-offs in theatrical earnings ever witnessed. While the movie did
generate a profit, it failed to meet expectations and largely disgraced
the already questionable franchise. Returning for a bit role in the
sequel is Sarah Michelle Gellar, a convenient ploy to dispatch early in
the renewed storyline. The overarching story of these movies is
difficult to follow because of their non-linear display, but it suffices
to say that the premise simply throws fresh meat at the ghosts doing the
killing in
The Grudge and beyond, arbitrarily abusing new
characters with
Saw- like predictability. In
The Grudge 2
specifically, the curse has escaped the confines of its haunted house in
Japan and made it to Chicago, where more equal opportunity executions
can be shown for sudden audience frights. The stupidity of concept
didn't seem to bother composer Christopher Young, who scored the first
two movies before departing with the 2009 entry. These are the kinds of
films that Young could score in his sleep, and that may have actually
happened with
The Grudge. Although basically characteristic of
Young's normal methodology, that score remains one of the horror
master's rare misses in the genre. Its rather low budget and atmospheric
approach did not contain the intelligence in dynamic instrumentation or
allure of lyrical enticement to give it any redeeming element. The seeds
of both techniques were there, but the main melody that Young provided
for the concept was intentionally challenging to grasp, the harrowing
sequences of death were handled with surprisingly dull, unlistenable
string techniques, and the droning mass of atmospheric underscore was
disappointingly lacking in engaging qualities.
For
The Grudge 2, Young built upon the same
basic foundation but offers far better developed and enunciated ideas
with a wider instrumental palette. As a result, the score resides far
more comfortably amongst the composer's other horror achievements. The
ensemble's scope is effectively widened, accenting solo instruments
sprinkled throughout the otherwise string-dominated work. A handful of
Japanese-specific contributors more clearly fuses with the orchestra,
and a deep choral presence takes the vocalized element past the simply
manipulated solo performances. A passage of less altered solo voices
does exist to a beautiful end in "Shikyo." The piano and other
percussive elements return, though the awkward merging of chimes and
cimbalom-like tones in the previous score is replaced by a straight
forward chime sound here. As a result, the reprised main theme is far
easier to appreciate as well. The performances of this idea in
The
Grudge intentionally slurred their pitch on the low end of the
two-note figures that open the theme; that technique is absent here, the
cleaner enunciation aiding in its accessibility greatly. The statement
of the theme in "Ju-on 2" is complete with the extremely deep male
choral accompaniment heard in some of Young's best works, though this
contribution does not carry over to the rest of the score as hoped. In
"Hitan," the composer shifts into his standard suspense mode, meandering
strings of harmonic beauty eventually building to one of the score's new
melodic ideas (manipulated from the parameters of the main theme). In
"Higeki," this material achieves depth reminiscent of
The Fly II,
its descending lines extending into the vocalized portions of "Shikyo."
To conclude the album presentation in "Inochi," Young coalesces this
material into one spooky but rather pleasant five minutes. Fans of the
maddening horror techniques from the first score will be pleased by
"Ritsuzen" and "Akuma," both of which feature the abrasive striking and
plucking of violins that seemingly avoid any organized direction. There
is a fair amount of morbidly groaning suspense underscore that continues
in
The Grudge 2, but in this work it is often layered with
fleeting and interesting instrumental colors completely absent from
The Grudge. Listeners seeking to get a taste of this franchise's
music would be best served by starting with the opening track of
The
Grudge 2 on its score-only album, followed by "Inochi." Like most
recommendable Young albums of this variety, there is ten minutes of
darkly pretty setup and/or resolution to set aside from the pure horror
material. There are still narrative issues in the music's flow, but
collectors of the composer's gloomy work won't care about such
matters.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,920 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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