Milan Records (Sony Music Soundtracks) releases the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, by Mark Korven. The film, written and directed by Johannes Roberts, is based on the successful Resident Evil video game franchise. The origin story of Welcome to Racoon City has the once booming location of the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation now abandoned and reduced to a wasteland. But evil brews below the surface and is unleashed upon a group of survivors who must work together to seek the truth in order to survive the night. Mark Korven has contributed music for films, documentaries and TV for more than 20 years. He has won a Genie Award and eight nominations, a Gemini Award and 14 nominations, and a Canadian Screen Award. Previous scores include The Witch, The Lighthouse, Ridley Scott’s The Terror: Infamy, Chapelwaite, Amazon Prime’s horror anthology Them, and the Netflix horror No One Gets Out Alive...

Track List: 'Opening'; 'Highway Accident'; 'Chasing Lisa'; 'The Crow'; 'Claire & the Neighbours'; 'RPD'; 'Runaway Truck'; 'Helicopter – Dog Attack'; 'Mansion Search'; 'Library – Ben in Jail'; 'Breach – Orphanage'; 'Nursery – Battle'; 'Experiments – Shoot Out'; and 'The Train'.

Innocent La La’s sound above ominous squeaking and rumbling to introduce us to the scenario. The ante is upped with squeaking, electronic sound effects and bass trepidation. The angelic churchlike organ and voices is incorporated, as it often is in horror films to inform us that everything is not as innocuous as it seems. We are partway into the soundtrack now, and the same tactics are being reutilised. It’s much more about raucous and grating sound effects than any actual music. The La La’s are back with tentative screeching – and what’s this? A tune? Well, a few notes anyway. Piano and organ tease with a nice bit of melancholy, but it’s short-lived, and we’re back to the rumbling and grating. 'Runaway Truck' has a nice steadily building soaring and dark, heavy electronica, but it fizzles-out halfway through the track and reverts to previously used sounds.

There is a nice combination of various-styled sound effects in 'Breach – Orphanage', dominated by synthesisers and electronica, but I’m seriously struggling to find a stand-out track. It’s probably the middle section of the closer 'The Train', which at least has the hint of some music. I haven’t seen the film yet, so I can only assume the soundtrack fits the relevant cues in the film perfectly. Certainly, the soundscapes created are well-achieved, even if you wish the La La’s would well and truly go away! However, it’s the absence of actual music that really lets this score down. Just my opinion, but I can’t imagine too many film music collectors adding this to their pile, purely because it doesn’t work as a stand-alone piece separated from the movie.

5

Ty Power