Customer Reviews

Final Destination [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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As if they hadn't squeezed enough life out of this franchise yet, The Final Destination - the fourth film in the horror movie franchise - again follows the fortunes of a set of teenagers who cheat death, but then find that Death doesn't like being cheated, and sets out to claim them anyway. The film is directed by David R. Ellis and stars Bobby Campo as college student Nick O'Bannon who, while attending a NASCAR race, has a premonition that a car wreck will cause a stand to collapse, killing himself and his friends; he convinces everyone to leave before the disaster occurs, but in the weeks following the event, his friends all die one by one in freak accidents.

The late, great Shirley Walker set the musical tone for the first three Final Destination films prior to her untimely death in 2006, and her mantle has now been picked up by the resourceful Brian Tyler, who seems to be specializing in scoring later entries into movies franchises with strong musical identities. As is usually the case with Brian Tyler horror scores, The Final Destination is LOUD, and often makes liberal use of rock stylistics, wailing electric guitars, and a heavy electronic undercurrent, as evidenced by the gut-busting opening "The Final Destination", or the softer "Moment of Joy". The more orchestrally-dominated pieces have a sinister heaviness to them, with surging string rhythms and snarling brass accompaniments, albeit again underpinned by an incessant contemporary synth pulse. Cues such as "The Raceway", "Nailed", "Car Washicide" and "The Movie Theater" are breathlessly entertaining, and are occasionally come across as a combination of the horror music Tyler wrote for things like Darkness Falls, crossed with the relentlessly energetic action music from Eagle Eye, which can only be a good thing.

Some of the brass writing - especially in cues such as "Revelations", "Flame On" and "Sushi for Everyone" - is quite magnificent, giving the score a sense of horrific power, almost acting as a leitmotif for the ever-present spectre of death. A few moments of emotional string and piano-led downtime in "Memorial", "George is Next" and others, allow the listener to regain their faculties, before the score heads off on another rampage; the more dissonant cues, such as "The Salon" and "Death of a Cowboy", whine and growl in the depths, getting under the listener's skin. Tyler brings everything together in the epic 13-minute "Final Destination Suite" at the end, which restates and builds upon all the main moments of the score. It's all very effective stuff, but with a running time of 64 minutes, does out stay its welcome a little, and by the end of the album you are quite relieved it's all over and done with. A little judicious pruning might have made the score a tighter listening experience, but the music itself is generally very good, and occasionally rather excellent.

The soundtrack to FD4 wasn't to bad. Brian Tyler did a great job on this! Totally worth it if you're a hardcore fan of the Final Destination series!

The only good thing I can say about Mr. Tyler's efforts for this film is that he incorporates Shirley Walker's original theme from the first film...a lot. Other than that, the score sounds like it was performed on a synthesizer instead of an orchestra, and the action cues are lifeless (no pun intended) and don't match the surprising complexity of Walker's.

I like Brian Tyler (his score for "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem" is a highlight), but he really needs to slow down and not score five movies a year. It's taking its toll on him, creatively. I'm just glad I bought it on iTunes for $10 instead of paying $16, like Amazon is charging.

Sure, it's the first "Final Destination" movie to get a score album, but it's also the worst.

This soundtrack has it all. Brian Tyler's thundering and muscular music, the rocking main title song, and the creepy and eerie suspense music we associate with the series. Also, it is a touching tribute to the late Shirley Walker. An excellent album with Tyler conducting the Czech Philharmonic giving the music a larger than life orchestra. The suite is the best track, a 13 minute symphony opus that incorporates all the themes from the series. MUST BUY!!!!