Since I have observed the lack of concrete reviews on this fabulous score, and since I listened to it yesterday night (lights off and headphones is the way to go when listening to this score :), I thought I'd post a review of it here. Enjoy :)

Now, before you mention it, I have to say I'm kind of biased. John Ottman is my favorite music composer so far. Even so, I tried to be as objective as possible when listening to his latest work, URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT, on which he is composer, editor, and director. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'll review the CD as a stand-alone.

The music is, simply put, great. It's original, creative, and it sensibly takes off from the usual John Ottman Sound (JOS :). The John Ottman Sound, for me, is a piano-driven score, accompanied by heavy but beautiful strings, and a lot of wood instruments. Although these three categories of instruments do play a large role in ULs, there is so much more to it that the style as a whole is one step beyond the JOS.

As always, the orchestrations are complex but exquisitely well-written and performed, and Ottman has no difficulty going from one mood to the next in no time. As a whole, the album is relatively dark, but a tad bit lighter in tone than HALLOWEEN: H20. The choir is still there, but a slightly more hidden and less used than in previous scores.

The themes. Well, they are there, but they're not the usual John Ottman themes. Amy's Theme (the protagonist's) is incredibly hopeful and feminine, and is used in a variety of ways: dramatic, scary, sad, .... It is short, though, but not as short as Trevor's theme (or, rather, Trevor's motif) which consists of a quick four-note clarinet passage. However, as the composer himself points out in the liner notes, in horror movies, characters are given very little time to develop, and the themes have to be short and remind the audience of the protagonists in a relatively quick way.

There are two other short motifs, tagged "mystery themes" by Ottman. One of them, played on the piano, ressembles the theme from THE SIXTH SENSE a lot, especially at the beginning of "Meeting Trevor" (track 4).

Which brings me to another interesting area of the score: as Ottman left his usual style, more and more influences creep up than usual. Not to say that the composer deliberately copied other scores; it's just a statement of fact.

Other than the SIXTH SENSE motif, if you will, the action music is reminescent of Marco Beltrami's synth-ridden style more than the usual percussion-heavy Ottman suspense cues, and some choral stuff at the beginning of "Meeting Trevor" made me smile, thinking of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.

Besides that, the choice of instruments is very creative. The percussion is more varied than usual, and effective sound effects can be heard from time to time, like a heart beat or a creaking door (the latter used a lot in the score). Another nice thing about ULs is the fact that all of those "cheap scares" pounding noises that you hear whenever something leaps at the character are really frightening and diverse. All of them offer a different combination of instruments that, to my knowledge, was never used before, and it successes in giving the right impact and sound. My hat's tipped off to Mr. Ottman on this one.

There are a few other points I want to cover, one of them being the inclusion of the Alfred Hitchcock Theme in track 22. It's called "Funeral March of the Marionette", and well... it's funny. I know the film revolves around a contest where the Hitchcock Award is given to the best student filmmaker, but I do find it a weird way to end the movie (if this is indeed the piece accompanying the last scene). Instead of closing on Amy's theme or on any original composition, Ottman ends it with something he hasn't even composed and it must give the movie a sense of comical relief in the end which might be weird given that it's a horror movie... Anyway, still have to see said movie....

Ottman also includes a variation on Christopher Young's URBAN LEGEND theme, playing it on the piano instead of the vibraphone, and without crediting Young on this. I don't know if composers are allowed to "steal" stuff from other composers without their approval; however, it is nice to have this theme coming back to haunt the cast from the previous movie (that is, only one character, Reese :).

The two songs at the end were composed by Damon Intrabartolo, Ottman's musical arranger and conductor. Now, I personally don't see these songs as bringing anything to the score, but again, maybe they are used in the movie. We'll have to see.

And, yes, there is a bonus track, track 25, which has a weird Ren-and-Stimpy-meets-the- Dwarves'-mining-song-in-SNOW-WHITE blurb. Is it in the movie? Or is it just a burnt-out John Ottman and crew who had fun with a microphone? I don't know. But it's funny :)

All in all, John Ottman's score to URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT is innovative, touching, frightening, quiet, and loud at the same time. It is of the highest standard of quality, as can be expected from this composer. Moreover, it represents a step further in his career, not only because he directed the picture, but because he developed upon his earlier Apt Pupil, Halloween: H20 style. He makes extraordinary use of the orchestra, especially the percussion section, and gives us a very effective, chilling, but ultimately reassuring score to a movie whose quality we'll just have to see :)

Rating : 4.5 stars out of 5

I know it was there a few days ago, but when they restructured the site, there were only four categories left. I don't see the REVIEW section anywhere.

I know now there's a "soundtrackREVIEWS" section on the side scroller, but I don't know how you can submit one.

Any info would be appreciated

Thanks,

The URL is http://www.moviemusic.com/title.asp?id=urbanlegends2

Jeron

The trailers scream re-tread to me...