Young has scored some big productions, both in and out of the horror realm. Let's just throw a few names out there; A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, The Fly 2, Hellraiser, Hellraiser 2... and I wouldn't dream of skipping mentioning the creepy score for Sinister (one of my personal favorites of the last couple years). His accolades aside, this is a piece all on its own and it will only work if the full score works well together. Bringing in less-known composers alongside Young will possibly elevate them in the future if this works.
Until I got this score to review, I had put off seeing this movie. I stayed away for a few reasons: one, it's a newer movie and those are almost always terrible; two, Jessica Biel is the "star attraction" to the movie and I honestly just don't care for her; three, the title makes this sound like some sort of Phantasm rip-off (spoiler alert: it's not). Now, with this review looming, I had no excuse not to watch the movie. I'd have to say it was a lot better than I expected. The music definitely helps out the mournful scenes as well as some big jump scenes. All in all, it just fits really well together.
I actually listened to the score by itself before I watched the movie. I did this because a score for a terrible movie can still be a great score. The score can also be used horribly by the filmmaker and thus put it in your head that the score, itself, isn't any good. Luckily, that isn't the case here, but let's get to the music.
This score immediately takes me back to the main theme from Friday the 13th (by Harry Manfredini). As I listened more, the "big scare" parts reminded me a lot of the new Evil Dead score (by Roque Baños). Regardless of what you thought of that movie, the score is amazing.
If you're looking for a soundtrack full of pop songs, this isn't for you. If you're looking for a score you'll hum along to, again, not for you. This is a huge, orchestrated score. It really does sound immense. I didn't even hear about this movie until it hit Netflix so I have no idea what the budget was but this is way bigger than I expected it to sound.
Each composer brings something different to the table. After listening through a couple times, you can pick up on which composer did which piece. I do wish it hadn't been sectioned, more or less, by composer and been in actual movie order instead. This allows the listener to sit back and see the movie as it happens in their head time and time again with each listen.
Bryanton's songs seem to be quiet to build tension and make way for some big, loud crashes. Swirling strings provide the perfect soundtrack for frantic running scenes. It's a formula used time and time again for horror movies. The reason for this is that it works. It does here too.
"Julia Chases the Tall Man" and "The Dog Attacks" are a couple of my favorite songs of his on this soundtrack. They do a great job of keeping a good tense, understated song going while adding some melody to it. It really helps give these songs a little more to the listener.
What we get that isn't quite so normal, is a few softer pieces. These are the songs from Douek. The piano and string-based songs he put together really open the whole thing up. There are a lot of scenes in The Tall Man that need a softer touch and that's exactly what we get.
Douek's "We Got Too Comfortable" is one of those cinematic gold-type songs. It's probably the closest this score comes to having a "theme song". It's soft and you get the feeling of desperation and confusion, then comes a great melody that just screams "theme".
There are a couple of songs intertwined in the soundtrack that are from performers other than the three composers. These are more background pieces from Pascal Laugier, George Acogny and Dale Williams. The Dale Williams piece has some vocals but is an easily forgettable one minute piece, as is Pascal Laugier's "Tall Man Lullaby". However, the lullaby is pretty creepy sounding. While there's a specific place in the movie for each of these songs, they're haunting on their own. The George Acogny song is a quick acoustic/piano piece that fits nicely within the layers of the soundtrack as a whole.
Christopher Young's five tracks come at the end of the soundtrack and as great as this stuff from Bryanton and Douek has been, Young really takes this in a more profound direction. The solemness, tension and beauty his songs bring forth are a cut above the rest. I'm not demeaning the other composers at all. There's just something more memorable and heartfelt to this section.
In older movies (horror and not), we have a song instantly identifiable with the movie. You can watch Halloween, The Fog, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly, Superman, Batman (1989) and so many more just once and if you hear the theme a year later, you know what it was from. Unfortunately, we don't get that here. It doesn't diminish the soundtrack a whole lot, it's just kind of a bummer to not get that very much anymore.
If you want a huge, orchestrated soundtrack that brings forth horror, vulnerability and tension, this is definitely for you. For a movie that escaped the masses upon initial release, I really didn't expect that this score would sound this immense. Adding Christopher Young was a great move in the fact that Bryanton and Douek have put together great pieces with big scares and creepy vibes throughout but Young brings a more meaningful (for lack of a better term) side to the whole thing.
Rating: 7/10 Skulls
Available on CD/digital from:
http://moviescoremedia.com/the-tall-man-todd-bryanton-joel-douek-christopher-young/
Reviewed by Chris Cavoretto
