by Swashbuckler on 3/21/2000
 
Although the movie and score opens exactly as you would expect (every low budget horror movie needs a chorus singing "Dies Irae"), the score quickly morphs into something else. Something much better.

Make no mistake about it. While this may be a horror film, McKenzie wrote an adventure score.

His low-key music for Julian Sands is standard stuff, a "Dies Irae" paraphrase, but it is done well (and still miles ahead of the synth droning this film might have been scored with).

This material is offset by McKenzie's love theme, which is quite beautiful (and capable of many variations, musically), and by his action music, which is full of wide-eyed wonder.

The odd genre-twisting approach to this score works well (although moments become a bit overbearing for this rather blah film), but as an album it shines, a wonderful score for a movie that never was.

McKenzie's "A Warlock Fantasia" was probably the film's end credits before they were replaced by a stupid (and already dated) pop song. It rounds up all the themes, with a wistful coda of the action music that makes one wish for more.

The sound on the disc is awful, with very little stereo separation, but the music is so enjoyable that it's worth the effort.