Zanobard Reviews

John Frizzell utilises a host of new & suitably eerie themes for Alien: Resurrection, and those combined with respectful nods towards Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic original, a few exciting action cues and an ominously romantic orchestral style makes this sequel score an engaging listen.

The year is 1997, and the compositional reins for the Alien franchise have once again changed hands. The music for the series began with Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic sound for the original 1979 film, moved to James Horner’s action flair for sequel Aliens in 1982, to Elliot Goldenthal’s darker, murkier sound for ALIEN³ in 1992, and now for this fourth entry in the franchise – to John Frizzell! A name I’ve not really heard from much (either before or after this score really, bar his work for Dante’s Peak) but that said, despite the… questionable quality of the film itself, Frizzell actually delivers a pretty solid score for Alien: Resurrection. It begins with “Main Title”, and eerie strings evoke a dramatic sense of orchestral dread in its opening seconds as the main Resurrection theme debuts. The strings move in grand swathes alongside ominously echoing electronics through the first minute or so of the cue, playing wary and shrill, until thudding drums and marching brass then overtake to introduce another of the score’s main themes; Ripley’s. Her theme is intriguing, aptly sharing structural similarity to that of Goldsmith’s dark, almost romantic theme for the original Alien, and it marches along with similar grandiosity too through its minute-long debut here until a bold, brassy crescendo crashes out the track.

The eerie two-note woodwind motif from Goldsmith’s Alien echoes ominously through the ninety second “Entering The Ship” against similarly unnerving thudding drums, with “Post-Op” afterward then building on this tonal wariness with a rather foreboding strings and vocal-led rendition of Ripley’s theme. Said motif also continues into “Make Us Proud/Meat By-Product” in a similarly moody manner until sinister echoes of the main Resurrection theme then overtake, and a rather horror-like crescendo closes out the track. High-pitched strings then continue with the wary rising and falling of the Resurrection theme in “Fiora 16/Inbred” before the original returns in “Docking The Betty” as Goldsmith’s two-note Alien motif clashes with grand swathes of brass and crashing percussion. Orchestral horror then arrives in full force for the two minute “Face Huggers”, firstly on creepily high-pitched strings before moving into low surges of tense brass and then introducing another brand new theme of Frizzell’s own; the Alien March. It’s a short and rather ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ debut, with the motif simmering malevolently in the background as the horror-styled strings and brass do most of the work, but it’s certainly there. Just waiting.

Distorted electronics kick off “Basketball/Foot Massage/Fast Learner”, with the orchestra moving into another sinister sway of the Resurrection theme for the track’s back half. Solemn, almost sorrowful piano notes then reprise Ripley’s theme on resolute brass in “Call Finds Ripley”, before our first taste of thunderous action then surges to the forefront in the middle of “Gunfight” with blasting brass and crashing drums leaping along. This serves as a solid introduction to the six minute “The Aliens Escape”, the score’s first major action setpiece, and it begins with a surge of distorted electronics before high-pitched crashes of brass and drums then emphatically overtake. A short though blasting rendition of Ripley’s theme then leads into a frenetically strings-focused horror sequence before the thudding brass of the Alien March builds to a violent finishing crescendo. A serene strings rendition of Ripley’s theme in “Twelve/Vriess Reappears/Telling Vriess” then leads into the grander, more in-your-face “Ripley Meets Her Clones”, with dramatically tense orchestra building both the main Resurrection and Ripley themes in an increasingly bold, emphatic manner until an imposingly ominous crescendo is reached.

The gigantic “They Swim…” is the action core of the album at a whopping nine minutes long, and it begins with shrill vocals heralding absolute dread; dramatic swirls of anxious strings and blasts of terrified brass then usher in a rapid pace, with increasingly frantic stabs of percussion building to a ferocious climax. From here the orchestra works at a phenomenal tempo, with instrumentation leaping and crashing emphatically along with tense interspersions of the Resurrection and Ripley themes until the aggressive ensemble finally exhausts itself. After solemn string respites in “Call’s Fake” and “The Chapel”, action starts to push its way back into centre stage as tense drums thud against nervous strings in “The Abduction”. With the finale of the score approaching, “Birth Of The Newborn” then practically bursts with a horrifically in-your-face intermix of both the Alien March and Ripley’s theme, with screeching brass and pounding percussion all abound. This tension continues into Call Meets The Newborn” with high-pitched, horror-like strings accompanying the marching drums of the Alien March until “Ripley And The Newborn” then brings the now deafeningly brass-led orchestra to a bombastic action finish. Morose vocals and strings then lament Ripley’s theme in “Finale” before “Alien March (End Credits)” offers a standout suite of the score’s main themes, starting with the malevolent titular March before moving into a dramatically brassy finish for Ripley’s theme.

Overall, John Frizzell offers a rather intriguing soundscape for Alien: Resurrection. The orchestral style, a darkly ominous and almost eerily romantic brass and strings-led ensemble, gives the album a suitably unnerving sound through which a number of themes – both old and new – clash. The main Resurrection theme debuts in the standout “Main Title” and is the most memorable of Frizzell’s contributions, rising and falling with ominous splendour throughout the score, and it’s joined by a similarly memorable and rather sombre motif for Ripley herself (“Ripley’s Theme”). The Aliens themselves also get a malevolent and rather entertaining theme that marches through dramatic percussion and brass-led rhythmic intensity in frenetic action sequences like “They Swim…” as well as the standout finishing suite “Alien March (End Credits”). Joining these new themes are also references to Goldsmith’s echoingly eerie two-note motif from the original Alien movie in cues like “Entering The Ship” and “Docking The Betty”. All-in, these themes together with Frizzell’s solid use of orchestra make for a pretty enjoyable score, with the action sequences where many of the themes mentioned above are in frantic play (again, see “They Swim…”) being the most enjoyable aspect, but that said – I do think this is the least best of the original four movie soundtracks. Certainly not bad, just… less to highlight than the others.

Score: 7/10

Standout Cues: Alien March (End Credits), They Swim…

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