Soundtrack Review: The Unborn (2009)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

July 6, 2009

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061709 0805 SoundtrackR1 Soundtrack Review: The Unborn (2009) This is a review of the motion picture score The Unborn by Ramin Djawadi.

“As far as horror efforts go, this is definitely above average, but not much more.”

The horror scores keep on coming in 2009, and it’s a great thing. New on the list is composer Ramin Djawadi with his first ever true horror score. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a horror debut! Isn’t it exciting!? Yes alright, he did the score to Blade: Trinity which is in the horror genre of sorts, but The Unborn is his first real horror movie score. Let’s see if Ramin Djawadi can fill the shoes of the horror greats.

Track List

The Unborn (*****)
The Glove (*****)
Jumby Wants To Be Born Now (*****)
Twins (*****)
Mom’s Room (****)
Barto (****)
Possessed (***)
Experiments (***)
Breakin Mirrors (****)
Dybuk (****)
The Doorway’s Open (****)
Sofie’s Letter (****)
Medicine Cabinet (***)
Bugs (***)
Book Of Mirrors (***)
Circle Of Trust (***)
Hex Or Schism (***)
Inhabit The Helpless (****)
Sefer Ha-Marot (***)
Casey (****)

The Beginning

Let’s start at the beginning, and it’s a great one at that. The opening theme ‘The Unborn’ is a nice introduction for what’s to come. It’s creepy and also features an interesting, but unremarkable theme. Perhaps the favourite parts of this cue are the non-thematic parts where Ramin Djawadi just plays on atmosphere with an excellent percussion beat. Moving on, there’s ‘Glove‘ which has no apparent thematic parts (almost), just ambience, but creepy ambience at that. It works well within the context and builds on to make it a hopefully great score.

Jumby is a creepy character and ‘Jumby Wants to be Born now’ helps with that fact. It’s a scary tune which is why I like it. I am not going to listen to it much, but its right up there with the best of what Christopher Young does in The Uninvited. ‘Twins‘ is another one those creepy must-have cues on horror scores, but Ramin does well by keeping it nice and tidy. He doesn’t go overboard with the dramatic violins in a random fashion, at least not yet.

Leave us Hanging

Unfortunately after setting the mood, Ramin Djawadi leave us hanging a bit and forming our own thoughts on what could have been greatness. What Christopher Young did so well in The Uninvited was keeping is tight and strong, but in The Unborn, it all declines rapidly. There are many examples of this like the cues ‘Possessed‘ and ‘Experiments‘ which tries to be scary, but it fails in that respect. As atmospheric builders, they work to an extent, but this score is filled with them. Almost pushing it, but leaves you hanging.

‘Hex or Schism’ is the longest cue on the score and it’s the perfect example of this score’s lack of “something”. It lacks an overall scariness and it lacks themes. There’s a point in there where you can sense some voices, that’s pretty scary, go with that Ramin! Other than that, it’s just endless ambient sounds that almost gets you there, but gives you no emotional response. I have to say that if I reviewed this as heard in the film, the score would be much higher. It’s a decent movie and the score builds up great atmosphere, but I like the music to be present in an off-movie setting as well.

Conclusion

The Unborn is a score of divided attention. There’s the score written for the movie and then there’s the score written for the rest of us, or is it? As far as horror efforts go, this is definitely above average, but not much more. It doesn’t scare me enough, nor does it move me with emotional thematic pieces. I sound a bit negative in this review, but it isn’t bad, just doesn’t move me the way it should.

061709 0805 SoundtrackR2 Soundtrack Review: The Unborn (2009)