The splendid “Sacrosanct Delirium” sees Young almost heading into Howard Shore/Lord of the Rings territory in the opening few moments, especially in the way the orchestra and chorus harmonizes, before continuing on through the subsequent seven minutes with terrific compositional creativity and orchestral muscle. Later, in “Blood Framed Hell”, a male voice choir chants ominously, accompanied by sinister vocal utterances, unnerving synth effects, and vivid outbursts of orchestral carnage. The moments of chaotic dissonance and rampaging rhythms towards the end of the cue are just fantastic.
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The immense “I Have Sinned” features a superb variation on the brass triplets that accompanied the resurrection sequence from the first Hellraiser, before erupting into a series of vicious explosions of horn-led mayhem that are wondrous to behold. The pure action and horror music is of the in-your-face sturm-und-drang variety, more often than not employing the colossal orchestral and choral forces at their loudest, and often underpinned by a noticeably large percussion section. This tender central motif actually plays a large part in the score as a whole in amongst all the mayhem that follows the theme makes guest appearances from time to time, reminding the listener that the driving force for all this is the rescue of an innocent young girl. It has some of the same surging string work that so typified his excellent score for Murder in the First, and often plays the main theme in harmony with what sounds an Armenian duduk clarinet, to excellent and haunting effect. The second cue, the gorgeous “Eclipsed Heart”, is the flipside of the horror, and introduces the first of several moments of deep orchestral and choral beauty.
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It’s a wonderful piece, full of everything that makes Chris Young great, and sets the tone for the score to come. The opening cue, “Priest”, is powerful and portentous, with a swirling repeated string figure, resonant brass chords, an interesting ascending woodwind triplet which dances under the main melody, the ticking woodblock from Species, bold choral accents, and eventually a Toccata and Fugue-style pipe organ to complete the sense of ecclesiastical grandeur. Some of the ideas are clearly inspired by Hans Zimmer’s current penchant for using repeated cello ostinatos as a base for the music – although it has to be said that Young uses the motif better and with more panache than anyone else who has used it – while other parts of the score pull up compositional flourishes from Young’s past, including but not limited to scores like Hellraiser II, Species and Copycat. The film also stars Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Stephen Moyer and Christopher Plummer.Īs one might expect, Young’s score for the film is absolutely enormous, making use of a large and vigorous orchestra, electronics, a church organ, a massive choral element, and various vocal soloists ranging from Lisa Gerrard’s soothing world music tones, to a bank of deep and menacing throat singers. Paul Bettany stars as the nameless Priest – part clergyman, part ass-kicking warrior vampire slayer – who is forced into action when his niece (Lily Collins) is captured by the vampire leader Black Hat (Karl Urban), who is attempting to provoke mankind into an all-out war with the vampires.
The film is based on a popular Korean comic book, is directed by Scott Charles Stewart, and is set in an alternate reality where humans and vampires have been at war for centuries, and where the Church has become one of the last vestiges of civilization on the planet, gathering the ragtag remnants of the human race inside giant walled cities. Although he is enormously accomplished at writing in literally dozens of styles, from the smooth jazz of scores like Rounders to the soaring orchestral beauty of scores like Murder in the First, his work in this genre remains the cornerstone of his writing, and Priest is yet another outstanding example of why he remains one of the best in the business as this kind of thing. Throughout his career, going all the way back to Hellraiser in 1987 and continuing on through scores like Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Bless the Child and Drag Me to Hell, horror movies with religious overtones have defined the majority of his best work, brought him the most fans, and earned him the most acclaim. You always know where you stand with a Christopher Young horror score.
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