© (c) 2006 Intrada TROLL

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CD Review: TROLL Soundtrack

Richard Band gives a little beastie a magnum opus.

Grade: B+
Stars: Composer: Richard Band
Writer(s): n/a
Director: n/a
Rating: NR
Distributor: Intrada

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By DANIEL SCHWEIGER, Soundtrack Editor
Published 12/21/2006

Creating film companies with the eagerness of Roger Corman on crack, Band’s ersatz studios like Full Moon Entertainment, Moonbeam Pictures and Torchlight Films cranked out dozens of disposable, and undeniably fun “entertainments” like the PUPPETMASTER and TRANCERS series, DOCTOR MORDRID and DOLLMAN VS. DEMONIC TOYS- many of which received scores by brother Richard. Even though many of his scores for Charlie would be done in a home studio, Band always enervated the proceedings with a sense of knowing fun, a musical punch line that was particularly inspired on score for the Band-distributed RE-ANIMATOR.

One of the best of Charlie’s insane bunch just may have been TROLL, which was made by Empire Pictures before its decline and fall. The film’s setting is an apartment building, where an ill-tempered creature does lots of presto-changeo nastiness on the tenants, some of whom include Sony Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Directed with unusual pizzazz by makeup artist John Carl Buechler, TROLL was a thoroughly engaging bit of fun, with a real magic that ensured a limited theatrical release, it’s spell helped in no small part by Richard Band’s OMEN-esque score.

If you can imagine Jerry Goldsmith doing his malefic magnum opus in jig-time, then you can get a sense of the fiendish delight that Richard Band applied to TROLL’s gentle darkness. With a chorus belting out a catchy mix of Italian and Latin (with a bit of Pig put in for good measure), Richard Band conjures numerous melodies for TROLL, with a charming sense of childish wonder that makes it one of the better 80’s fantasy scores- meaning legendary status in Charles Band terms. Given a more-than-competent orchestra to conjure TROLL’s antics with, Band also showed off a talent for memorable themes that few Charlie efforts would budgetarily allow for.

Thankfully, time has been kind to Richard Band’s often-underappreciated abilities. With work on STARGATE SG1, THE GILMORE GIRLS  and an Emmy nomination for Stuart Gordon’s MASTERS OF HORROR episode DREAMS IN THE WTICH HOUSE, Richard Band’s prolific talents have now truly grown far outside of Charlie’s busy shadow. But even in it, Richard Band was able to work wonders on a musical shoestring, especially when given an orchestra to show off his true composing magic with. And when you listen to Intrada’s terrific-sounding TROLL cd, Band comes across as more of a genre Genie than ever -- able to bestow the musical wish of even the smallest fantasy film to sound as enchanting as any of the bigger Hollywood beasties out there.

If you want to buy one of 1200, limited edition TROLL soundtracks, check out here.

6801-6821

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