Identity (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

by Heather Phares James Mangold's mind-bending, postmodern thriller Identity features an equally complex score that borrows freely from the idioms of Bernard Herrmann's classic music for Hitchcock's films, as well as from the more subdued, electronic-tinged music that soundtracks many current horror films and thrillers. "Prologue" fuses brooding, poignant melody with creepy-crawly sounds that lie just beneath the surface; "Settling In" mixes tablas and crunchy electronic beats with spooky, sitar-like guitars; and "No Second Chance" mixes the famous, stabbing strings from Psycho with some abstract percussion. "Lou Is Dead" is a particularly scary track, with slashing cymbals, rumbling drums, and strings that sound like muffled screams; even quieter pieces like "Orange Grove" and "What Have You Done?" have a muted tension to them. Indeed, Identity is such an effectively tense score that it doesn't necessarily work as a listening experience outside of the film's context; nevertheless, fans of horror film music should enjoy the soundtrack both as a part of the movie and as a well-crafted piece of music.