Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,191
Written 10/31/99, Revised 6/15/08
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Buy it... if massive, harmonic orchestral and choral horror scores
are still in your music player in the middle of summer.
Avoid it... if all bombastic, Gothic horror scores sound the same
to you and the last thing you need to hear in the middle of summer is
another series of cliches from the genre.
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| Davis |
House of Frankenstein: (Don Davis) Among the worst
made-for-television horror mini-series ever is NBC's "House of
Frankenstein," which debuted during the Halloween season in 1997 and, in
the next ten years, has never been considered worthy of its own release
on video or DVD. Written by J.B. White and directed by Peter Werner, the
two-hour series (shown over two nights) involves a detective
investigating mysterious creature happenings in contemporary Los
Angeles, and many favorite horror characters and concepts slash, bash,
and bite their way through the script. The story was generally
considered the weakest link of the production, but the strongest link
has long been agreed upon: Don Davis' music. Davis had been a veteran
orchestrator for many years by the mid-1990's, and his resume included a
score for another NBC/J.B. White television adaptation, The
Beast. It was a time when the composer was finally breaking into the
A-list of Hollywood music; the second part of "House of Frankenstein"
would net Davis an Emmy nomination (for "Outstanding Music Composition
for a Miniseries or a Movie") and the composer was within reach of his
breakthrough work for The Matrix. Between the feature films of
The Matrix and House on Haunted Hill, and the prior "House
of Frankenstein," Davis was establishing a strong name for himself in
the darker genres of composition, his music usually featuring a smart
combination of orchestra, electronics, and chorus. For "House of
Frankenstein," Davis uses the same formula to produce a fun, somewhat
campy, better than average B-flick listening experience. He really
doesn't break any new ground with the score, using a series of horror
cliches that reach back many years in film scoring. Nor does he (or any
part of the series, really) make token references to the 1944 classic
film of the same name. Instead, everything in the music for "House of
Frankenstein" is somewhat normal for a Gothic horror venture, though
Davis' success here is largely due to his ability to convey these
generic ideas with interesting orchestrations and, more importantly,
keep them tonal in style. As such, it's one of the easier horror scores
to digest on album.
The score opens with a momentous horror fanfare with
strong shades of Christopher Young's
Hellraiser II, Jerry
Goldsmith's
The Omen, and, by association, Carl Orff's "Carmina
Burana." The use of timpani in this cue will even remind some of Basil
Poledouris'
Conan the Barbarian. This idea is reprised throughout
the score, most notably in "Frank Restrained," and most of its
performances are built on grandiose, almost pompous rhythmic movements
with heavy adult choral chanting in tow. The jumpy cues of true fright
that you might expect in abundance are held to a relative minimum on the
album, and most of these use dissonant techniques that Davis would
explore further in
The Matrix (including the wavering brass
mixing). Secondary themes exist, though not with particular
transparency. A tender character theme highlights several conversation
cues, including the pretty string and piano "Vile and Contemptible."
Some of the straight action cues are so harmonious in their presentation
that they emulate the style of
Warriors of Virtue. Both the
latter half of "Dog Speed" and "Beauty Kills the Beast" offer extended
sequences of rather simplistic but very enjoyable adventure material.
Many Davis fans point to the gorgeous choral passages of "House of
Frankenstein" as the highlights of the score. In the cues "In Paradisum"
and particularly "Coyle and Cha Cha Break In," Doyle uses a hymnal
approach to elevate the Gothic elements of the story with strikingly
beautiful results. On the whole, the tone of "House of Frankenstein" is
not only harmonic, but the instrumentation is mostly organic. Davis
augments the orchestra and chorus with only seemingly a few electronic
accents, once again bringing the score into the same group as
Warriors of Virtue. The quality of the recording is also to be
commended; despite what was likely a restrictive orchestra size, Davis
manages to get massive results out of them, and choir's mix is as
heavenly as can be. The score was only made available in 1999 on a long
promotional album, and with its numerous highlights, that album is a
"pick and choose" compilation candidate. It has moments of choral
majesty and orchestral action not to be missed, despite the cliches that
pop up frequently.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Don Davis reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.3
(in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 44,959 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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