Darkman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

This album was sort of tossed out by MCA without fanfare after Darkman was released to only minor success. It's another in the series of dramatic, heavily orchestrated scores Elfman is known for, orchestrated by Steve Bartek with an assist from conductor Shirley Walker. While comparisons have been made between this score and that for Batman, there are major differences — this score is brighter, often more obvious in its effects than Batman was, with a brassier overall tone that works well. There are also some delightfully demented moments — "Carnival From Hell" is fairground music tilted at an angle, the funhouse mirrors peeking through. For some people, the differences in tone and attitude won't be enough to make it worthwhile, and it's certainly true that there's some repetitiveness involved here — Elfman needs to break away for a while from fantasy/horror/science fiction/comic book scoring and develop his compositional abilities in other directions. However, it's not a bad release by all means; in some respects it's a stronger score than the one for Dick Tracy, and more dynamic in tone than Nightbreed.