Amazon.co.uk Review
Although the
Omen film series was seen to dilute in quality and effect as it progressed, Jerry Goldsmith's scores just got better. In the middle installment to his trilogy, he clearly had great fun with material from
his original Oscar-winner. Specifically, "Ave Satani" chant finds itself re-allocated as Damien's own motif. It works wonderfully during the set-piece murders, and in particular as a series of sinister whispers in "Shafted". There's also a creepy crow motif to embody the Antichrist's eyes and ears of this movie. Proving he hadn't expended all his creativity defining a choral association in the Satanic horror genre, Goldsmith actually found new ways to make you uncomfortable via a choir. There's something akin to a belching sound from the male choristers in "I Love You, Mark" and unspeakable throaty noises in "Aunt Marion's Visitor". The film's most memorable sequence is undoubtedly the ice hockey game, and similarly it is the composer's tour-de-force "Broken Ice" cue that is most likely to stay with you. One reason for that is this release's unique presentation of two versions of the score, "The Album" (a re-recording issued in 1976) and "The Film Soundtrack" (the complete sessions). In whole or in part, the three
Omen scores remain amongst the most genuinely unnerving horror music ever written. --
Paul Tonks