“The Plane the Plane”. Yep immortal words spoken by actor Herve Villechaize as the character Tatoo, in the long running and popular TV series FANTASY ISLAND, a pretty harmless series if I remember rightly, but I did not think it was that good, just another Mystery Movie type show. Well, the big screen version has arrived and has obviously been updated and given a contemporary feel, which normally means its nothing like the original and is probably filled with horror and harrowing scenes. Why they can’t just re make something and try and leave the storyline intact I do not know, but in the case of FANTASY ISLAND why re-make it full stop. Not going to even see this one, I have seen snippets and that is enough for me, The music is by Bear McCreary, a composer who does not seemed to have stopped for breath since his scores for THE WALKING DEAD became so popular, since those early TWD days the composer has worked on numerous TV series and also movies for both the cinema and television. Its lke every movie had his name on the credits, the thing I worry about is the composer being used so much that his creativeness evaporates after a while. However saying that I do not think McCreary has run out of steam in either the quantity or the quality departments, His score for BLUMHOUSE’S FANTASY ISLAND, is not I think going to win any Oscars, it is as far as I can hear a pretty standard horror romp score choral sounds, mysterious and edgy passages that are low key one moment and the next without warning erupt into pandemonium and chaos, you know screaming strings, pounding percussion, icy and sinewy sounds that send tingles down the spine and low throbbing effects that convince the listener they are being watched or worse, hissing strings too raise their foreboding head and are driven along by urgent percussive elements throughout, underlined by tense and apprehensive strings. The composer even incorporates electric rock sounding guitar into the proceedings to heighten the mood and give the film a grand and unrelenting sense of dread. So is it good, well I suppose it’s a horror score, so we are not going to get pretty lilting thematic tracks all the way through are we, however, saying that there is a more melodious cue in the form of THE LIFE YOU WANTED in which the composer employs a subtle piano solo, which is enhanced by strings in a kind of adagio, after listening to the recording a couple of times, one can hear the thematic content even if it is somewhat hidden under a plethora of action and atonal sounding material. But this is Bear McCreary, we know this wont be conventional, will it? I am going to say you should at least give it a chance, see what you think, it might just be your cup of nerve jangling, raw and jagged sounding tea.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 