Mimic

As director Guillermo del Toro put in the liner note, the score "Mimic" is truly a score that "talks directly to your heart". For this film, Beltrami's score emphasizes on the strong contrast between beautiful yet tragic themes and dissonant orchestration techniques.

The CD starts with beautiful boy soprano in "Main Titles", then the ethereal choir is played against powerful fear-inducing horns. Admittedly this is not a new technique---it has been successfully utilized by the likes of Elliot Goldenthal in "Alien 3". But it's undeniably so effective that every time I listen to it, it gives me the creeps. Yet this is only the beginning of this operatic CD. From the start to finish, the score shifts between musical beauty and beast. It sometimes moves the audience to tears with beautiful melodies such as heard in "Time to Separate", and sometimes initiates a full onslaught with the whole brass section of the orchestra, played in the most post-modern manner. These contrasts somewhat remind me of the wings of those insects as depicted in the film, evil, but with certain evil beauty.

All in all, this is a perfect score. Even the song at the end is excellent. It perfectly captures the atmosphere of the film ---dimly lit city street with unspeakable evil lurking underneath. Unfortunately this score is out of print now. If you're lucky to pick up a copy, don't hesitate, for this is perhaps Marco Beltrami's best score.