It switches between this angelic yet creepy, fast-paced, type of music that I cannot put a word to, and hard metal (probably not hard metal). I'm really not a big music guy, can anyone distinguish these two musical styless I am referring to?
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I'm late to the party but I'll try. I just finished watching it on cable (was cleaning my house and got distracted). :)
The pseudo-angelic stuff seems to be when she's talking, and it is somewhat cold and creepy. Just like her. Kind of new-agey, but not. If you watch Breaking Bad listen to the music in S3 where Walt sees the superlab for the first time - that fake ethereal music. The metal-y stuff is closer to industrial, and I like how it plays when she's walking. Like she's a force of nature.
Love this movie.
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The music during the opening credits switches from soft to hard metal on a dime and back again... I think to give the audience the feeling that this will be a wild ride and that Nicole's character is unpredictable and volatile, while appearing sweet and soft.
shareEven before verifying who wrote the music, it sounded like Danny Elfman, and sure enough it was. His music is very quirky but also very memorable, Elfman is one of the most unique music composers in film history. His early work had a lot of guitar type stuff, but his trade mark is perhaps the use of dissonant chords, which to some people sounds like finger nails down chalk board, but to others (myself included), it's what makes an Elfman film score so hard to forget.
Elfman has done some great indie films including "Freeway" starring Witherspoon, which has similar music as "To Die For", and a lot of blockbuster type movies. Tim Burton also seems to love the guy, he uses him in all his films:
Elfmans better known films
1985 Pee-wee's Big Adventure
1988 Beetlejuice
1989 Batman
1990 Dick Tracy
1990 Edward Scissorhands
1992 Batman Returns
1993 Army of Darkness
1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas
1994 Black Beauty
1995 Dolores Claiborne
1996 To Die For
1996 Mission Impossible
1996 The Frighteners
1996 Freeway
1996 Mars Attacks!
1997 Men in Black
1997 Good Will Hunting
1998 A Simple Plan
1998 A Civil Action
1999 Anywhere But Here
1999 Sleepy Hollow
2000 The Family Man
2001 Planet of the Apes
2002 Spider-Man
2002 Men in Black II
2002 Red Dragon
2002 Chicago
2003 Hulk
2003 Big Fish
2004 Spider-Man 2
2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2005 Corpse Bride
2006 Charlotte's Web
2007 The Kingdom
2008 Wanted
2008 Milk
2009 Notorious
2009 Terminator Salvation
2010 The Wolfman
2010 Alice in Wonderland
2010 The Next Three Days
2011 Real Steel
2012 Dark Shadows
2012 Men in Black 3
2012 Frankenweenie
2013 Oz, The Great and Powerful
That "hard metal" song you heard was by a band called Nailbomb. They were sort of a 90's heavy metal supergroup combined of the front-men of both Fudge Tunnel and Sepultura.
The song is a result of when bands started mixing groove-oriented thrash metal with hardcore punk somewhere in the late 80's/early 90's. So that's how I would describe that type of music.
IMO it's a rather typical Elfman score.
"Oh, what have I drunk?" - Socrates
Schizophrenic, perfect for the main character.
shareSchizophrenic, perfect for the main character.
shareA little late, but the score is definitely pure Elfman. However, while it has Elfman's sounds written all over it - the strings, ghostly and angelic choir, harp, pianos- the death metal/grind bits make it something else entirely. It's pretty great.
Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!