It’s Alive
Label: Film Score Monthly
Catalogue No: FSM Vol. 15 No. 2
Release Date: Mar-2012
Total Duration: 47:46
UPN: 6-3855-80319-2-6
IT’S ALIVE is Bernard Herrmann in uncompromising mood with a score of such unsettling grand guignol terror as to make the listener want to turn up the house lights and lock the doors and windows! Laurie Johnson refashioned the score for the sequel IT’S ALIVE 2 (aka IT’S LIVES AGAIN) and hitherto that has served as a substitute for Herrmann’s score but the original, as heard on this disc from Film Score Monthly (FSM) is considerably bleaker and more dissonant. Herrmann’s “Main Title” is suggestive of an almost primeval sense of evil and foreboding, leaving absolutely no doubt as to the type of film which the music is dramatising. Brass and percussion are Herrmann’s favoured instruments for the score and are combined to savage effect in the horrific scenes of the mutant infant’s birth in “The Delivery” and for the climactic attack and death in “Kill It”.
The few times a string instrument – viola d’amour – makes an appearance is during “Where’s Leonore” and especially in “Father and Child” in which a mournful but oddly attractive tune, attempts to provide an element of empathy between father and child. As with various other Herrmann scores, the music works much better within the film itself than as a pure listening experience and is comparable to Herrmann’s SISTERS in so far as having a decidedly chilling effect upon the listener. The poor quality mono sound is something of a disappointment and acts as a distraction from fully appreciating the music (rumours have been rife in film music circles as to what may have happened to the original stereo tracks) but this release does at least provide what, until now, has been a frustrating gap in the Herrmann film music discography. The booklet is up to the usual high standards of FSM and includes detailed notes by FSM stalwarts Jeff Bond and Frank K DeWald.
