Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,893
Written 4/29/10
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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.
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| Young |
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.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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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