It’s hard to believe this Red Dragon soundtrack is from the same Danny Elfman who penned such interesting and original scores as Batman and A Nightmare Before Christmas. Red Dragon contains virtually none of Elfman’s clever harmonic twists and turns or deliciously unconventional orchestration. Instead we get standard modern suspense-movie fare, with the usual musical effects: wordless choruses, low string murmurings, and synthesizer obbligato. Except for two gripping, intense tracks, “The Fire” and “He’s Back”, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style dramatic effects, the music mostly creates an atmosphere of pernicious gloom. Most surprisingly for Elfman, the melodic material is uniformly bland, without a trace of the tunefulness that informs the composer’s better efforts. Whatever the merits of the film (and according to movie critics, these are dubious), this soundtrack album provides nothing stimulating, provocative, or even memorable.
