John's Thoughts

Let's just say, ... well, the score got dumped. I'm the composer, so I didn't agree at all, of course, with the decision! As a filmmaker and composer I thought the film's score needed to live up to the gutsiness of the film, yet supplying emotional depth I thought the film desperately lacked to be successful. So I combined the "alternative sound" the producers wanted with a strange blend of classical sound, a featured string trio and a woman's voice: I used a female singer as a sound to haunt Sebastian. Sometimes it reflects his obsession and guilt about Annette, but other times it represents the other woman in his life, Katheryn. The lines were often blurred to represent Sebastian's torment. The score was designed to be dark yet emotional, reflecting the purgatory of these vampire-like characters and the love Sebastian found to inspire himself to tear away from that life. I believed a more sophisticated and dense approach would make more of the film and would offer a great juxtaposition of all the source music throughout. I also wanted there to be delicious moments as well to go along with the sordid decadence of the siblings, especially Katheryn. It all worked great - believe me! Anyway, at the last minute some test screening scores dipped (after they changed a few songs as well) and none-other than the score was thought to have been a likely suspect. Love those valuable test screenings and the wisdom they inspire! (Not to mention the acid in the stomach.)

Update (8/2/2000):

The CD is still moving forward, and will be released later this fall through Varese Sarabande Records. No date has been set, but it will contain the entire Cruel Intentions score, as well as some "suites and themes" from other projects, including The Cable Guy and Fantasy Island, both of which never got an official release.

Update (10/6/2000):

In preparing the Cruel Intentions album, I discovered a digital audio tape of my original mastered mixes for Incognito. When I heard the tape, I was excited to hear that these were the way I had intended the soundtrack album to sound. We had some pops and crackles throughout the recording of Incognito from a defective Dolby card in our control room. This is why, prior to the album's mastering, that the cues were passed through a sonic filtering device to remove these glitches. The frequency range was compromised from the original recording and then brightened. But the tape I discovered was the original mastered recording prior to this filtering process, and the sound is beautiful. Who cares about a subtle pop here and there. I'd rather hear the pure recording as I remembered.

So this Cruel Intention CD contains three cues from Incognito which have been resurrected from the original mastered tapes of the score. It is the only available way to hear these cues as I originally intended them to sound on the album. I would love to release a new CD of the entire score with the original mastering. But at least you get to hear three cues for now!