Is there anything more fun than a rousing, fully orchestrated score to a piece
of cult classic horror? I really don't think so. Sam Raimi's Evil Dead
Trilogy has long been a favorite for those who enjoy mixtures of both
horror and comedy. The first film was more along standard horror lines,
but with the next two a departure was made that blended the ghoulish
demons and copious amounts of fake blood with hilarious one liners and
over-the-top fight scenes.
Out of all three movies, I personally prefer Army of Darkness
because I feel that it works the best out of the three. Joe LoDuca's score
for this film works just like it should as well. While the first film was
mostly standard synth scoring, and Evil Dead 2 contained
both synth and real instruments, Army of Darkness contains a full
orchestral score. LoDuca's style for the film is highly reminiscent of
Danny Elfman, who composed the March of the Dead sequence for the
score. Whether Elfman was originally intended to score the whole thing or
not (which I highly doubt), it is a testament to LoDuca that
Elfman's piece does not clash with the rest of the score, instead blending
quite nicely with LoDuca's compositions.
The music is a hodge-podge
of sorts containing action-adventure cues, romantic interludes, and the
typical horror orchestrations that everyone has come to either love or
hate. DeLoca helps keep this mixture all together with his generous use of
themes throughout the score. All of his themes are quite fun and
they are always twisted about in interesting ways. There are a couple of
spots where DeLoca pays homage to other scores from similar genres (or at
least one that I know of), and while some may be off put by the
references, I found them highly amusing.
Danny Elfman's contribution
consists of the March of the Dead track. It is quite similar to the
Final Confrontation cue from
Batman Returns, with a lot of
the same ideas present instead of just outright re-use. It's a great
track that is a little more sinister in tone than what DeLoca composed
for the rest of the score, but it still fits in well. The cues are not
arranged in chorological order, so is it possible that it's just not coincidence that Elfman's piece is on the thirteenth track?
This is another one of those
scores that is just really fun to listen to. It may not be the greatest
score that has ever come along, but I've been popping it in my CD player
quite often and that is a pretty good recommendation from me. I would definitely
recommended this one to Elfman fans or fans of the film itself. ****
