Orphan (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Producer Joel Silver enlisted veteran film composer John Ottman to score Jaume Serra's film Orphan. The pair has worked together before on House of Wax. Interestingly, since the film is a very psychological and nightmarish drama — one would hesitate to call it a "horror" film in the vernacular sense of the word, the score presented some interesting, and more than likely compelling puzzles for Ottman. For budgetary reasons it seems, instead of merely an orchestral score he used the heavy presence of synthesizers. These cues are threaded with them but never feel overwhelmed. The feel from the opening moments of this score is uncomfortable yet oddly seductive. There are no overly swelling cues that beat you over the head until you submit to the obvious. The music is far more suggestive and evocative than this. The cues shimmer and twist, they can turn suddenly and leave the listener a bit disoriented, but always wanting to hear more. Apparently the composer never intended the music for Orphan to be a conventional CD release, but the studio powers that be insisted and they were right. This is a stand-up piece of music all on its own.