Composed and Produced by John Debney
Conducted by Pete Anthony
Executive Producer: Robert Townson
Released by Varese Sarabande February 2000

Q-Review

The Schwartz is back with composer John Debney providing the chilling score for this Apocalyptic mess of a film, End of Days.  With the dark subject matter of the film, the expectation for such a score is generally very high when it comes to strong thematic material.  What is expected are the clichéd vocals, eerie strings, and creepy-synthesized concoctions that composers find a way to come up with for such scores.  Factor in any Biblical element and a choir is going to be a part of the basic package.  With such knowledge and expectation in mind, John Debney does not disappoint.

The choir is there.  The strings are there.  The piano crashes, synthesized spooks, haunting solo soprano: they all make there obligatory appearances.  Together they unfortunately forge a rather typical horror film score.  Knowing the talent that Mr. Debney possesses makes this a disappointing fact.

One interesting element is the strong similarities to one of the main themes from Terminator established nearly 20 years ago.  Intentional or not, the theme is very easily discerned in track 3, The Shooter, and provides a needed moment of laughter.

The Bottom Line
End of Days by John Debney provides few moments of listenable music.  The clichés are endless and such music probably already exists in one's film music collection somewhere.  Given the material Debney had to work with, he did a decent job, but in a film that blew the doors of creative license, the development of the score in that fashion was sadly left out.

Score

Rating: 3/10

2/10

6/10