Disturbia

Whenever a Media Ventures artist is put in charge of scoring a horror film, the outcome is always very interesting. Sometimes the score is the typical synth noise you would come to expect out of a trashy horror movie. Sometimes the score is actually very thematic, and manages to deliver a firl good result. The score for Disturbia, a modern remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window, is both. Tackling the project from the Media Ventures sperm bank of composers this time around was one of Zimmer's closer prodigies, Geoff Zanelli.

Funnily enough, Disturbia was Zanelli's first major film score and that comes across alot in the music. At times Zanelli decides to dip his foot in the water and explore some interesting content. When he isn't doing that though and needs to focus on suspense, Zanelli retreats back to using the annoying technique of implementing synth effects as sounds. While the album opens disappointingly on 7 minutes of aforementioned sound effects, it continues along promisingly. 'Fishing' and 'Voyeurism' both have touches of soft, orchestral music while 'Poofoot' is a fast paced and fun guitar piece. A very strange choice comes with 'I LIke to Play' and 'Walking Ashley Home'. Both tracks sound like rock songs that found their way into a score album.

When it comes to suspense and the occasional horror in the film, Zanelli is not very subtle with his music. Cues like 'Every Killer Lives Next Door To Someone' and 'Stealth Ronnie' are fairly disappointing. Rarely does the composer implement synth and orchestral, but when he does the effect is pretty good. The last 15 minutes of the score are also pretty much the same, with an occasionally burst of orchestral music.

As far as horror and suspense scores go, Disturbia is a fairly good effort. At times it does offer a nice pace of orchestra and even rock that doesn't fit in with the genre but is still an interesting little concept. As far as the suspense music goes, it does fall very short of expectations. The stereotypical droning synth and percussion is very bland and here it never takes off like it should have. Overall a fun little effort from Geoff Zanelli for those who want a little more freshness to the their horror scores.