The Happening Soundtrack

Whilst the movie might not have been that good, it doesn't necessarily mean that the score isn't very good either. On listening to the soundtrack I found that it reminded me most of James previous score to The Village. The Village used the violin as a solo instrument that played beautiful melodies throughout a lot of the score. The Happening does a similar thing, but instead uses the cello.

However, the cello is not played in the same style as the violin was in The Village. It is used in a much darker manner and instead of beautiful melodies we get eerie and mysterious melodies. A great cue which demonstrates this is "Five Miles Back".

The cello is not the only instrument that stands out though. The piano is also rather dominant throughout the score. It is quite often followed by the brass section as together these make up the basics of the main theme which can be heard best in the "Main Titles".

There is also the more traditional suspense/horror music such as "Rittenhouse Square" and "My Firearm Is My Friend", but I find these are the more forgetful cues and sadly I found that the soundtrack contains quite a lot of this type of music which doesn't make for a great listening experience.

Overall The Happening soundtrack isn't exactly anything special. I'd probably recommend it to the fans of older film music as they might like it a lot more than I did. But whilst it wasn't as big a disappointment as the film itself, I don't think I'll be listening to this soundtrack very often. If you are looking for a great James Newton Howard soundtrack I'd go for The Village if you don't already own it, as I think that it is still his best (solo) score to date.