The Thing [Soundtrack]

Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing is a prequel to the popular and influential 1982 film of the same name, which was directed by John Carpenter and starred Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley. The first few moments of that film show a Norwegian man in a helicopter shooting at a dog barreling across the frozen wastes of the Antarctic; the next 20 minutes reveal that the Norwegian was part of a scientific team, all of whose members have been gruesomely killed, and their research station burned to the ground. This film looks at the circumstances leading up to that awful discovery - who the Norwegians were, what they found buried deep beneath the ice, and more importantly, what killed them. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, and a whole host of Norwegian character actors in the smaller roles, and has an original score by Marco Beltrami, who spends part of his time channeling Ennio Morricone, and the rest of the time drawing upon his considerable horror movie music experience.

Ennio Morricone's original score for the 1982 film was one of his starkest, full of abstract and tortured electronic organ tones and string stingers, and highlighted by a menacing heartbeat effect that punctuated the entire score. Beltrami's score is larger and more expressive in terms of the orchestral forces at play, and has a slightly more tonal core than Morricone's work, but still manages to retain the sense of impending terror and nervous paranoia that permeates both films. The sense of isolation is compounded by the way Beltrami adds a chilling wind-blown effect to the opening cue, "God's Country Music", which contains a great deal of chilly creepy-beautiful string writing underpinned by an intentional homage to the Morricone heartbeat motif, linking the two scores and films together in musical terms. The second cue, "Road to Antarctica", builds on this style, adding a much more forceful thematic statement and grander orchestral ensemble into the mix with generally excellent results. The resounding brass calls, hooting bass woodwind accents and string flourishes give the cue a large and impressive sound, and make it one of the highlights of the score.

Much of the rest of the score revolves around suspense, tension, and moments of brutal orchestral carnage. The action music is vivid and violent, and gives Beltrami ample chance to do what he does best - give his orchestra free reign in the horror-action stakes. And let loose he does, giving his players an almighty workout through cues such as the impressive "Eye of the Survivor" with its wonderfully bold Elliot Goldenthal-style brass motif, the staggeringly vicious "Meet and Greet" with its shrieking woodwinds, the rampaging "Finding Filling" with its beefed-up percussion section and unnerving pizzicato strings, and the flat-out bone-chilling "Sander Sucks at Hiding", which reaches ear-shattering levels of intensity by its conclusion.

The brass motif heard in "Eye of the Survivor" develops into a recurring danger motif for the Thing itself. It appears, surrounded by all manner of orchestral carnage, in several of the later cues that deal with moments of creature-related revelation, notably "Female Persuasion", "Antarctic Standoff", and especially the wonderfully nightmarish and dramatic "Meating of the Minds", which is one of the best cues of its type in the score - although the massive, whooping trombones in both "Can't Stand the Heat" and the short but memorable "Sander Bucks" are pretty darn sensational too.

The tension and suspense is usually created by low-end string sustains and ambient electronic chords, and some of the middle-album cues do tend to suffer from a little staleness and sameness as this style of music takes precedence over the more crowd-pleasing thematic statements and the barnstorming action sequences. As a result, The Thing tends to be a score which excels during its opening and closing sections, but gets bogged down just a little in the middle, and this may test the patience of some listeners who aren't as adept at handling extended periods of anxious dissonance as I am.

Beltrami ends things on a more emotional and thematic note in the conclusive pair, "The End" and "How Did You Know", which revisit the more melodic material from the opening of the score, with the added bonus of a haunting cello lament, and a stirring restatement of the main theme which eventually fades away until nothing but the howling wind remains - a clever, and poignant finale to the score.

This one small issue of the slower middle section aside, The Thing is nevertheless an excellent and very accomplished horror score. In fact, it's been a terrific year overall for Marco Beltrami. With this score, his fourth and final effort of 2011, Beltrami has concluded a creative purple patch that has seen him not only excel in his beloved horror genre with this score and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, but also stretch his wings into emotional family drama with the wonderful Soul Surfer, proving that he is a composer who can turn his hand to any type of music in any genre, and succeed admirably. This score comes highly recommended, especially for those who know and love his work in the horror genre.

As a huge fan of John Carpenter's The Thing, I did not get the chance to see the original in the theater but after about 30 years later a new and much needed prequel is released at the show in October 2011 in time for Halloween so I had to see the new upcoming prequel, it was an absolute must but before that could happen I had to get the score! From first moment to countless listens I am awe in each time! Scoring Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Live Free or Die Hard and returning for Scream 4, and being a horror master, Marco Beltrami was a wise and decent choice to score The Thing but listening to this fantastic score it more than seems that Marco Beltrami seemed like he was destined to score this, it just sounds so right, so right that could be quite true. Seeing the film I was not disappointed at all, it was all and more I had hoped for it to be after hearing Beltrami's fantastic score. The album is in chronological order. Beltrami included Carpenter's famous beat and even sound nice wind effects in the first track "God's Country Music". I was surprised that the majority of the second track "The Road to Antarctica" was not in the film. Listening to it I had envisioned and suspected that it was the theme of the lead character Kate Lloyd, a paleontologist due to its very classical sounding greatness, why it was chosen not to be a part of the score in the final film I'm not sure but I believe there was only tiny hints of it in the movie. I just love how in many sections within the score Beltrami makes his music sound very alien and not from Earth and how the score is really dominated by the Thing's theme. When you hear the theme just once and for the first time you'll know what it is and what it's for, it's that powerful! The score is quite epic with blasting horns, pounding drums and eerie strings, its quite marvelous indeed. At times you can tell Marco nods to Goldsmith here (he was Jerry Goldsmith' student, Goldsmith is My favorite composer of all-time). I have heard many good scores this year but none of them compare to Beltrami's The Thing. Beltrami's other great one this year called Scream 4 was very exciting but still isn't The Thing. There's just so much to it besides what I mentioned. It has great sound and is very original, its exciting, spooky, and even emotional at times. Some moments doesn't sound like Beltrami but there is a few that Beltrami fans will love because only he could do it! After listening to this I am going to give Beltrami more attention now:) Like the director said in the booklet, the score definitely tells a story, the listener will especially notice this after a few complete listens. This is arguably Marco's greatness score to date! I have gone to the movies many times this year of 2011 (the year of the extra-terrestrial movies) and I have decided that The Thing is the movie of the year and without question the score to The Thing is the score of the year and in fact, the score is one of the most dynamic ones I've heard in a long time and one of the best of all-time!

Favorite Tracks: (if you listen to them in this order without the other cues it gives you a cool alternate score)

2. Road to Antarctica
3. Into the Cave
4. Eye of the Survivor
5. Meet and Greet
6. Autopsy
7. Cellular Activity
8. Finding Filling
10. Female Persuasion
14. Meating of the Minds (Arguably the most important track just as the scene is arguably the most important in the film!)
18. In the Ship

I gave this to my brother as a gift. I don't know anything about this movie or CD. My brother loved this movie and CD.