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Artwork copyright (c) 2004 TNT Originals,
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2004 James Southall
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SALEM'S LOT Reasonable
horror score dogged by poor "additional music" A review by JAMES SOUTHALL The talented Christopher Gordon hit many film music fans'
radars with his critically-acclaimed score for On the Beach, and then hit
the mainstream radar with Peter Weir's Master and Commander (though in
common with most of Weir's films, the music in the film is an eclectic
hodge-podge). His latest work is Salem's Lot, a TNT cable movie
adaptation of Steven King's popular story about vampires terrorising a small
town in Maine. It stars Rob Lowe, who must have the worst set of advisers
in the world - he dropped out of The West Wing, the best thing ever to
happen to him after a string of shitty movies and tv shows - in order to return
to doing a string of shitty movies and tv shows!? How odd. It also
features Donald Sutherland and, wouldn't you know, James Cromwell. Of
course, Salem's Lot had been made into a tv movie before, and I'm not
sure anyone will be entirely clear as to why it needed to be made again; and Rob
Lowe is a few steps down the ladder from James Mason. Gordon's score is rather impressive. For whatever
reason, additional music is provided by Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy.
The latter two wrote the uninspiring, generic "Salem's Lot Aria",
which opens the album, but fortunately the real music begins in the second cue,
"Thanksgiving", just by Gordon. His music actually tries to be
interesting, which is not something that could be said about too many modern-day
horror movie scores. Certainly, there are some tracks which seem curiously
redundant and add little to the experience (which, at over an hour, is just too
long) but there are also some terrific moments elsewhere - from the jagged
choral assault of "Thanksgiving" to the mournful beauty of "Eva's
Story". "Mark's Escape" is a terrific track with some
dramatic piano writing leading to a suspenseful orchestral and choral
climax. Of course, in virtually any horror score there are moments of
warmth, and a nice contrast is made following "Mark's Escape" in
"Approaching the Mansion", which (at least to begin with) is really
quite attractive. "Mutans evae nomen" is a lovely piece of
vaguely liturgical choral music, a definite highlight. Interesting horror music is quite hard to find these days, but
Gordon - while not exactly shying away from the clichés - does provide some
interesting material, particularly when he lets rip with the orchestra.
Perhaps these moments are disappointingly few, but when they do arrive they
certainly have some impact. "In the Cellar" is a great piece of
horror music, keeping the listener on the edge of his seat throughout; and
"The Mansion Burns" a great, truly thrilling piece of action.
Certainly, some of the material could have been dropped (especially the
disappointing music by Gerrard and Cassidy, but also one or two of Gordon's
pieces) to make for a better album, but this is still pretty impressive
stuff. Worth a punt, especially for fans of the rising talents of
Christopher Gordon. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here!
Tracks
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