HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Hellbound Rating:
Highpoint Rating:

Original Review: Hellbound: Hellraiser II represents the music Chris Young at its biggest, loudest, scariest undiluted best. For the man regularly referred to as the Bela Lugosi of film music, this is his Dracula - the finest horror score of his career and, in the opinion of this reviewer, one of the finest horror scores of the Eighties, which can hold its head up high alongside such classics as The Thing, Poltergeist, Dead Ringers and The Fly.

A sequel to the highly successful Hellraiser in 1984, Hellbound built upon Clive Barker's horrifying vision of purgatory on Earth, and picked up immediately from where the story of the original film finished. Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Lawrence) is in hospital, having emerged from her terrible encounter with her Uncle Frank, her evil stepmother Julia (Clare Higgins) and the demon Cenobites, led by the evil Pinhead (Doug Bradley), who had been released from hell by Frank with the aid of an ancient Chinese puzzle box. However, the terror is not over for Kirsty, and when she is subjected to a vision of her skinless father undergoing unspeakable torment, she must re-open the ancient box, venture deep into the bowels of Hell, and rescue him. But Julia, having been reincarnated by the lunatic Dr Channard (Kenneth Cranham), wants the puzzle box for herself, and will do anything to get it...

In his brief from director Tony Randel, Chris Young was told to make his music for Hellbound "a celebration of horror". So, Chris went away and hired the impressive Graunke Symphony Orchestra and wrote a chilling opus which reverberates to the sound of a huge brass section, impressive swirling strings, increasingly dominant and ominous percussion, and a huge, vibrant choir offering Gothic vocal praise to the musical demon who hired them. The seven-minute opening cue, 'Hellbound/Second Sight Seance" is quite possible one of the most impressive pieces in Young's career.

An entirely new theme written especially for the sequel, it is unremittingly dark and chilling, but immensely powerful and engaging as well - so much so that it makes my skin crawl and my spine tingle in equal measure every time I hear it. The familiar, eerily attractive flute motif of Julia's Theme from the original score takes over after two minutes, offering brief respite from the aural onslaught, but then a waltz-like string section, accompanied by eight French horns, the choir and the rattling metal percussion effects heard in James Horner's Krull, ever-so-slowly increases the tension. Eventually, the cue builds to a climax which, by the time the sound of the savage brasses and moaning choir have died away from the speakers, you are left drained and breathless.

After this bleak, forbidding opening, the music descends into even more uncharted musical depths, with chaotic rhythmic devices and creepy instrumental and orchestral effects dominating the entire score. 'Looking Through A Woman' begins and ends with the some of the masterful brass and electronic chase music used in later cues such as 'Chemical Entertainment', bookending another massive performance of the main theme. The deceptively attractive music box theme also appears in this cue for the first time - something which will later form the core of the deeply disturbing 'Hall of Mirrors' cue, in which it is subjected to all kinds of musical torture by being twisted and turned inside out and interwoven with all manner of dissonance, resulting in what the liner notes describe as a "carnival from hell".

Other cues of note include the electrifying, powerful 'Skin Her Alive' and 'Dead or Living?', the unnervingly cacophonous and atonal 'Stringing The Puppet', and the horrific 'Leviathan', the cue which underscores the battle between Kirsty and the Cenobite leader, and in which Young pits a booming "Devil's Horn" against a bass choir chanting the word "God" in Morse code. As if to counterbalance the mayhem, 'Something To Think About' is a soothing, almost lyrical, restatement of Julia's theme for strings, subsequently afforded both thunderous and heavenly refrains in 'Headless Wizard', while the finale in 'What's Your Pleasure?' ends the score on a disturbingly downbeat tone, offering the listener a false sense of security - at least until some other poor sap finds out how to open the puzzle box.

Tagged on to the end of this album, from GNP Crescendo, is a 12-minute suite of cues from the film Highpoint, a 1984 comedy chase movie starring Christopher Plummer, Richard Harris and Beverly D'Angelo. Highpoint is the flip-side of Young's musical talent, and sees him in a much more relaxed and exuberent mood. The highlights of the suite are the heroic 'Main Title', the light-hearted and jaunty 'The Kendo Duel', the exciting action cue 'Up The Stairs', and the two performances of the attractive love theme, which feature lovely solos for harmonica and Gregg Nestor's acoustic guitar.

Although Highpoint is a decent sounding score, it is Hellbound which rightfully captures all the attention here. Never before - or since - has Young produced a sound so grand, so impressive, so overpowering, or so capable of scaring the living daylights out of you. For all his attempts to escape from the confines of the horror genre, and despite all his successes since, this is still where Chris Young's true forte lies. Drop in the disc, sit back, and prepare to be transported to film music hell - in the nicest possible way.

Track Listing:

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II HIGHPOINT Running Time: 73 minutes 59 seconds

GNP Crescendo 8015 (1989)

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II: Music composed by Christopher Young. Conducted by Alan Wilson. Performed by The Graunke Symphony Orchestra. Recorded and mixed by Eric Tomlinson. Mastered by Malcolm Cecil and Jeff Vaughn. Produced by Christopher Young. HIGHPOINT: Music composed by Christopher Young. Conducted by Paul Francis Witt. Guitar solos performed by Gregg Nestor. Produced by Christopher Young. Album produced by Christopher Young and Ford A. Thaxton.

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