Intrada announces the premiere release of a long-sought after Carter Burwell score: the 1996 Universal Pictures thriller Fear. The film is a psychological thriller centered on the intense and tumultuous relationship between a teenage girl, Nicole (Reese Witherspoon), and a charismatic but dangerous young man, David (Mark Wahlberg). As their romance blossoms, Nicole's father, an extremely protective and watchful figure, begins to suspect that David may have a darker side. As David's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and violent, Nicole must confront the reality of her relationship and the significant dangers it poses to her and her family.
The film opens with a sweeping flyover of Seattle and here Burwell introduces his main theme underscored by pounding taiko drums. As Jeff Bond writes in his liner notes, "It is marvelously ambivalent, swelling with something between seductive longing and monomaniacal confidence. The drums playing over the helicopter shot immediately establish the city as a tribal battleground where Steven Walker’s instincts to protect his family will run up against David McCall’s impulses to not only seduce and steal away his daughter but to insinuate himself into the structure of the Walker family, attaching himself to Walker’s young son, his attractive wife and even his dog while Walker watches." The score is moody and unsettling, slowly insinuating itself into the drama behind the scenes much as David integrates himself (or tries to) into the family. The score also received notable praise from critics reviewing the film.
Burwell credits a lot of the power of his Fear score to the orchestration and conducting of Shirley Walker. “It’s got a particular sound I think she takes a lot of responsibility for, like the way that the brass plays at the bottom end and the lushness of the strings,” he points out.
The CD was produced by Carter Burwell, mixed by Michael Farrow and mastered by Chris Malone.
