I saw this movie for the first time this week, own the Intrada album for a long time. It's not a Young score I listen to often, but I do enjoy the main and end titles for the great theme and choir.
I thought this was going to be a Cape Fear sort of deal, but interestingly the movie tells the story from the psychotic point of view of Busey. In this movie, Busey acting psychotic is still more sane than his current celeb persona. It's weird seeing this movie in that context
Although it's not the same as Hellraiser, there is a shot in the attic that is very reminiscent of Frank playing with the lament configuration. I guess this is a case of Young being typecast as this is also a movie with a freak in the attic, be it that this one is less homicidal and has a different agenda.
The premise is hard to swallow, but once you buy into it, there are some good suspenseful scenes, no doubt thanks to Chris Young. I'm not sure if everything is on the Intrada album, the movie wasn't scored that heavily, but again, the main and end titles are the best.
The score is one of Mr. Young's finest early efforts IMO.
I agree that the Main and End titles are the best cues, but the score is replete with many moments of beauty. 'A place like home' is perhaps the standout.
Since the very beginning of Young's career I've been constantly impressed by his ability to write beautiful music for less than pretty situations.
Some of my favorite horror scores (and favorites period) are by Christopher Young.
Hellraiser, Hellbound, The Fly II, Species and The Dark Half are among the best in the genre.
Yes, all of those are of the same class and more or less period. It's also the style that I love most from Young. He really owned any other composer in the horror genre around that time. In the thriller genre it was a tie with Shore
And he also wrote some excellent suspense type scores as well.
Jennifer 8, Judicial Consent and Copycat come to mind, but any type of score is gold with him. For instance, take The Hurricane, Def-Con 4, Evolution and Bless the Child - all of them great scores from very different pictures, ranging from B-movies to major Hollywood productions, yet all are wonderful.
Yes, all of those are of the same class and more or less period. It's also the style that I love most from Young. He really owned any other composer in the horror genre around that time. In the thriller genre it was a tie with Shore
I cannot agree more with you (we have had this "talk" before)... I have always found the score to Hider in the House to be quite evocative. Though I do not play it often, I will break it out every once in a while and play it with Richard Band's somewhat recent release of The Caller (courtesy of Intrada).
Young's music of that era (late 80's-early 90's) remain my favorite. And yes, he totally owned the horror genre. Years later, it was a lot of fun when he scored Urban Legend (one of my favorites)... and then Drag Me To Hell (more recently).
I have alway's found Young's music to be complex and a high caliber example of "wow, listen to that..." One of my favorite composers...
Yes, all of those are of the same class and more or less period. It's also the style that I love most from Young. He really owned any other composer in the horror genre around that time. In the thriller genre it was a tie with Shore
I cannot agree more with you (we have had this "talk" before)... I have always found the score to Hider in the House to be quite evocative. Though I do not play it often, I will break it out every once in a while and play it with Richard Band's somewhat recent release of The Caller (courtesy of Intrada).
Yes, thanks again for pointing me towards "The Power", one of his early scores I was very impressed with. It needs a release on cd! (intrada?)
Yes, all of those are of the same class and more or less period. It's also the style that I love most from Young. He really owned any other composer in the horror genre around that time. In the thriller genre it was a tie with Shore
I cannot agree more with you (we have had this "talk" before)... I have always found the score to Hider in the House to be quite evocative. Though I do not play it often, I will break it out every once in a while and play it with Richard Band's somewhat recent release of The Caller (courtesy of Intrada).
Yes, thanks again for pointing me towards "The Power", one of his early scores I was very impressed with. It needs a release on cd! (intrada?)
No problem at all Francis... Glad you like the score... and yes, it is impressive... I would love to see it released on cd at some time in the near future.
Aha, i see someone dig up/find out The Power yet again I aswell do hope so, someday it will be issued as CD, even tho main theme is pure classical rip off i just love it.
An interesting example of how a movie about a psycho can be scored for pity toward the villain's plight, as well as the fear of the protagonists. When I listen to this CD I sometimes think of Anthony Perkins thinking that Jerry Goldsmith really understood Norman Bates was an innocent. Just as one can contrast the approaches of Psycho and Psycho 2, one can look at the traditional way to score this kind of movie--with the scary, Herrmann-esque direct approach, or by taking the opposite approach.
I love this score! Absolutely haunting theme, with the unnerving writing that Young specializes in. I'm especially a fan of his use of celeste/vibes and flute here. Doesn't make for a great album with the suite-style edits but it's criminally underrated! The movie itself isn't awful and makes good use of a score like this.
I could be reaching but I picture the echoing synth in the score to represent some kinds of doobell/door knock that Tom keeps hearing in his head, like the arrival of the police or something from his childhood. A sign of a great score for me is its ability to get in your head and think what certain minuscule ideas really might mean. Genius all around!
