Soundtrack Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
| Reviewer: JØrn Tillnes |
Resident Evil: Afterlife Soundtrack Review: This is a review for the motion picture score Resident Evil: Afterlife by Tomandandy
"This is by far the hardest music for the series"
Resident Evil: Afterlife is the fourth movie in the franchise based on the video game from Capcom with the same name. This it's directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich reprises her role as Alice. It also stars Ali Larter, Spencer Locke and Wentworth Miller. It is also the first film in the series to be released in 3D. In the film Alice searches for and rescues remaining survivors in Los Angeles of the T-virus outbreak, who team up against Albert Wesker, the head of the Umbrella Corporation. This time the score is written by Tomandandy and as usual, the expectations are high.
Track List
| 1. Tokyo | **** |
| 2. Umbrella | **** |
| 3. Damage | **** |
| 4. Cutting | **** |
| 5. Twins | *** |
| 6. Exit | *** |
| 7. Far | *** |
| 8. Flying | **** |
| 9. Memory | **** |
| 10. Los Angeles | **** |
| 11. Binoculars | ***** |
| 12. Prison | **** |
| 13. Discovery | **** |
| 14. Hatchet | *** |
| 15. AxeMan | **** |
| 16. Arcadia | **** |
| 17. Up | **** |
| 18. Party | **** |
| 19. Promise | ***** |
| 20. Resident Evil Suite | ***** |
Many Composers
The Resident Evil series has had a few composers up through the years. Marco Beltrami, Jeff Danna, Charlie Clouser and now Tomandandy. Andy Milburn and Thomas Hajdu are the people behind Tomandandy and they have been involved in a number of horror films, including The Hills Have Eyes and The Strangers. I always felt their music to be interesting the way they experiment with ambient sounds and layer the soundscape with their own ideas.
For Resident Evil: Afterlife they continue in their musical travels to create a really hard electronica horror score, but they have to my recollection never sounded so hard. By hard I mean heavy, really heavy at times, almost like a pseudo metal sound with guitars. The cues 'Damage', 'Cutting' and 'Party' are great examples on that.
They haven't forgotten their ambient, almost dreamy style with cues like 'Memory' that just lingers, but never really takes off. It's quite enjoyable on album and perhaps even more so on film.
Logical Step Forward
Some people, scratch that... a lot of people won't "get" this score and I understand that. If you like your scores to be orchestral, almost classical, then this won't be your cup of tea. Just remember what kind of movie this is and when you think about the last movie with the music from Charlie Clouser, this is a logical step, and possibly even a step upwards.
The highlight cues on Resident Evil: Afterlife are 'Binoculars', 'Promise' and 'Resident Evil Suite'. 'Binoculars' is a great trance-like track while the gritty and distorted electronics won't let you forget that this is Resident Evil. 'Promise' is another great ambient electronica track and I do wish Tomandandy had done more with this type of material. In the end we have 'Resident Evil Suite' which is the perfect track to showcase the album. It has the best this score has to offer.
Conclusion
It's a gritty, heavy and ambient electronica score which to be honest was to be expected from Tomandandy. I wasn't expecting it to be this hard though. This is by far the hardest music for the series and it's a good thing. Watching the trailer and putting Tomandandy's music on there just feels right. This might be the best score yet for a Resident Evil movie.
CUE RATING: 79
Listen to the Resident Evil: Afterlife soundtrack by Tomandandy below:
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