10 Modern Movie Soundtracks That Are Better Than The Film
Sometimes what you hear is more important that what you see.
Sometimes music is what can turn a good film into a great one. Thinking of all the iconic moments from cinema history, the score is usually a big part of what made those moments memorable. Would we be as awed by some of the scenes in Jurassic Park without the John Williams score? Could Pixar have made us cry in the first 10 minutes of Up without the brilliant Michael Giacchino music?
When we think of the best movie scores, we usually head back to the classics: Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Back to the Future among many others. But we don't even have to go that far back, and there are plenty of more recent films with scores that, in a few decades, will be considered classics. And if not, they definitely should be.
The observation has been made by a lot of fans that movie soundtracks have gotten less memorable over time. Part of the reason we think of those classic scores immediately is because they're so distinct, we could all hum them off the top of our head. Recently, a lot of scores have lost that. Hum the theme from the original Superman. Now try humming the theme from Man of Steel.
But that's not the case across the board, and for these 10 films, the scores are iconic and memorable, with clear themes that add a lot to some of the movie's best sequences.
Here are 10 great recent films with even better soundtracks.
10. It Follows
Just about every review of It Follows mentioned the movie's score in some way, and for good reason. It's for sure one of the most memorable aspects of an already excellent horror film.
The film itself is very stylistic and clearly inspired by horror films of the late '70s and early '80s, in particular Halloween. This excellent synth music from Disasterpiece becomes a pretty important element of that style. It's great to listen to by itself, but it's also creepy as hell in conjunction with the film.
The opening track, which plays over a character being chased by an unknown force, is crazy and intense, and a great way of getting us into the terror of the movie right away. We also have this track, the movie's main theme, which helps establish the tone and style, conjuring up images of Halloween. It's that feeling of a quiet, suburban town where things are about to get out of control. It's both kind of nice and relaxing but also subtly creepy. Something is definitely off about this town, and we're about to find out what.