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A thriller about medical students studying – you guessed it – pathology, the Pathology Original Motion Picture Score composed by Johannes Kolbilke and Robert Williamson is exactly what one would expect it to be – tight, tense, and slightly eerie.

Listening to a score outside of the film it is intended for is always something of an interesting experience for me; I try to listen for the story, even if I have no idea what that story is. A good score can provide inspiration, create feeling, and in doing so spin a tale in a more primal way than a film. Music plays on the imagination, and all of the greats, from “Tara’s Theme” to “The Imperial March” can stand alone, create passion, bring you to tears, and overwhelm the senses. This is what great score is. Pathology falls into a slightly lesser category, one where score music relies on the film it accompanies to inspire feeling. It is a backdrop, the lighting, the costume department. It is a cog in a movie machine.

From start to finish, the music behind Pathology tells us that we should be tense, on our toes. The first track, “smurfin Me, Please – Meeting the Interns” brings us in softly, gently. A hint of Hans Zimmer gives the track slightly sad feeling, one that does not last long. “We Don’t Like You” continues this feel, plunking piano that feels slightly off, like slant rhyme.

From here the score turns; we are subjected to songs that are loud, bass heavy, ala Massive Attack’s “Angel” (“Killing Daddy”) and eerie Donnie Darko-esque unsettling sounds and pacing. It throws you off, puts you on edge.

The last third of the score, where our story should be wrapping up, is oddly quiet, understated. It is, in fact, significantly quieter than the rest of the album, almost like a ‘Spooky Sounds of Halloween’ kind of compilation, which immediately and bizarrely shifts into a series of guitar riffs, ripe with urgency, and then back into melancholy piano once more as it gives us “Gwen’s Theme”. Even here, in what should be considered the most beautiful track on the CD, there is no real emotion, just an empty-seeming ocean of sound.

So what’s Pathology about? Medical interns trying to commit the perfect murder. All of the feelings created by the score make sense within the confines of the plot. But on its own, there is nothing special about the score music.

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