13 Scores of Halloween - Day 12

Getting back to a composer I talked about earlier in the series, Brian Tyler has worked on a number of features in the last few years. Some have been good, but others...not so much. Exhibit a: Darkness Falls.

The small town of Darkness Falls has been visited by the spirit of a vengeful woman who was long ago accused of killing a child and hanged. The spirit goes by 'The Tooth Fairy' for reasons I could not be bothered to remember. The rest dissolves into a blur of incredibly unlikable secondary characters and lame attempts at fright. Seriously, folks, you could do much better.

Tyler's score doesn't really make the film watchable, but it is damn good. The main theme is a four note melody that represents the town of Darkness Falls and the ever-present threat of...The Tooth Fairy. (Oy.) It recurs throughout the score; a brilliant transistional version in "Overhead", a beautifully tense string take in "We Are Safe in Here" and a violent sounding horn rendition in "A Bit Crispy".

An eleven-note (!) melody on horns, high strings and bells figures into cues like "Evil Rises" and "Der Zylinder", a perfect match for the constant running the characters are doing to survive.

There is also a very touching love theme on piano and oboe that tries to sell a romance between the film's only remotely interesting characters, Kyle and Caitlin, appearing in "One Kiss" and "Blood Red Herring".

Varese Sarabande released this score, thereby sparing grateful fans of the music the dreadful film for which it was written. (Clips from the score can be found at Tyler's website. I'd have linked them, but they're 'javascripted'.)

Tomorrow: Oh, take a freakin' guess!