The only really interesting thing about this
score was hearing Alan Silvestri do his own take on musical territory that
had been previously tread by Bernard Herrmann many years ago. Indeed, both
the film and the score have many close ties to a low-budget horror film that
came out a while back known as Psycho.
Like Herrmann's score to Psycho,
Silvestri's score to What Lies Beneath consists of a lot of brooding
string sections, with the end titles especially giving away it's roots in
Herrmann's score. Of course, ominous synth effects are also thrown into the
mix as well, dragging this score down into the abyss of cliché. There is
really nothing in this score that hasn't been used countless times before
for films of this genre, and that's quite disappointing from someone who
gave us the excellent Back to the Future scores. Of course, the film
probably didn't give Silvestri much inspiration. In fact, this is one of
those scores that can best be described as being written on
"autopilot."
With a scant running time that just barely falls
short of the thirty-minute mark, only die-hard Silvestri fans should
consider picking this one up. **
