|
|
Castle Freak (1995)
|
|
Reviews
|
Frustrating,
by Alex (February 27, 2007)
I’ve been a huge fan of Richard Band for quite some time. His talent as a composer is huge, and unfortunately he has gone entirely unrecognized as a composer. “Castle Freak”, Stuart Gordon’s 1995 horror effort, isn’t up to Gordon’s best efforts, and neither is Band’s music here. That said, there are isolated moments of genius in this score. A string quartet was utilized to brilliant effect; it sounds bizarre, original and fantastic. Unfortunately, between these moments of musical gold we have a score that is largely brooding orchestral and synthetic underscore, occasionally punctuated by loud bursts of string or brass. This approach is familiar and, unfortunately, not particularly interesting.
If you can get this score cheap, do it. There are a few sparse shinning moments that exemplify Band’s talent and creativity, but for a better idea of what he’s capable of, I recommend his scores for “Mutant”, “Troll”, “From Beyond”, and “The Day Time Ended”, amongst others.
As it stands, “Castle Freak” is a decent effort with some fantastic musical ideas that unfortunately go unused for most of the running time.
| |
|
|
|