by Ryan Keaveney

Music Composed by Alan Silvestri
Rating: ***

From the director/screenwriter of Jack Frost (no, not the one with Micheal Keaton, the other one, about a menacing snowman terrorizing nubile babes) comes Identity, a serial killer thriller that, despite a few flashes of gore and a few decent twists, fails to scare. Scored by action-specialist Alan Silvestri, Identity utilizes music so sparingly in the first half of the film little tension has risen before the first body drops. Not even a severed head bouncing around in an industrial sized clothes dryer can bump this movie up a notch.

Silvestri is known for his unabashedly bombastic adventure and action scores (think The Mummy Returns and Judge Dredd as fine examples) but he spent a period scoring trashy thrillers like Richochet and Shattered. That training serves him well here as Silvestri does everything that would be expected: hit the stingers with a barrage of forceful percussion, flittering woodwinds and long descending string chords (“Lou Is Dead” – the album’s fright best track, “No Second Chance”) and lend an air of unease and mystery (“Prologue”, where the main theme is introduced). To keep things fresh, the composer dials in a few unexpected turns like the bongo/guitar-led “Settling In”, a delicate theme heard in the first half of “Suicide Jumper”, and the supah-funk organ(!) in “Rhode’s Secret”. Otherwise, Silvestri attempts to sell what the filmmakers thought they really had on their hands: an ultra-hip thriller that would scare the hell out of you with it’s delirious mind-screw. Well it isn’t and it doesn’t.

Alan Silvestri

The album then settles into a mix of atmospheric strings and rustling percussion (“It Was An Accident”, “Bodies Disappear”, “May 10th” – which features a nice reprise of the main theme). Silvestri’s atmospherics actually work well in creating tension on their own, but don’t necessarily work as a solid listening experience. All are perfect for Halloween eve front-yard music, but not recommended as a background for sitting down with a good book!

Dennis Sands’ recording and mixing is top-notch (no surprise, he’s the best in the business). Don’t be put-off by this thirty-minute presentation, it’s as much of the score as you’ll need. Note: the “Identity End Credits” feature annoying dialogue snippets from the film.

Identity is a fine genre score, but it doesn’t rock me like some recent horror efforts like Brian Tyler’s Darkness Falls (which benefited from a Gothic tone). Identity serves like a fine compliment to Silvestri’s What Lies Beneath, a more classic horror-score, with it’s silky long string melodies. Fright fans will dig the atmospherics and occasional stings (those with heart-problems avoid listening with headphones – take my word for it), but those big on melody or a constant barrage of brute orchestral force should know by now this album is not for you.

Music Composed and Conducted by Alan Silvestri; Orchestrated by Alan Silvestri; Recorded and Mixed by Dennis Sands; Produced by Alan Silvestri and David Bifano; Availability: In print; Label (Catalog): Varèse Sarabande (302 066 459 2); Release date: April 15, 2003

01. Prologue (2′57)
02. What Have You Done? (1′15)
03. Settling In (2′24)
04. Lou Is Dead (3′24)
05. Suicide Jumper (2′13)
06. It Was An Accident (2′29)
07. Bodies Disappear (1′44)
08. May 10th (2′22)
09. Rhode’s Secret (2′39)
10. Showdown (2′20)
11. Orange Grove (2′55)
12. No Second Chance (1′27)
13. Identity End Credits (3′37)