As anticipation and positive buzz for David Fincher's 'Gone Girl' builds, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and composing partner Atticus Ross have unleashed the first snippet of the film's score – a layered wall of sound that takes the duo into new territory.
The track, reportedly titled “The Way He Looks At Me,” opens with a diffused chime's haunting bellow, before layering in percussive kicks, synthy blips, bass horns, and what sounds like power saws cutting through sheet metal. Knowing Reznor, it could be.
The track evokes the stress-filled scenario concocted by “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn, who also penned the screenplay. After his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), vanishes, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) treads water in a sea of murder accusations and investigatory inquiries. Reznor premiered the track on the homepage of the Nine Inch Nails website, though fans have already isolated the music for easier (headache-inducing?) listening:
In a Wall Street Journal interview from earlier this month, Reznor described Fincher's direction for “Gone Girl” score: “He said, 'Think about the really terrible music you hear in massage parlors,'” says Reznor. “The way that it artificially tries to make you feel like everything's OK. And then imagine that sound starting to curdle and unravel.”
“Gone Girl” is Reznor's third feature film score and third collaboration with Fincher. The musician took home an Oscar for his work on 2010's “The Social Network.” He followed the win with 2011's “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Reznor's partner Atticus Ross bides time between collaborations with individual projects. His composing work includes “The Book of Eli,” “Broken City,” and the TIFF 2014 premiere “Love & Mercy.”
Trade reviews have pre-empted the Sept. 26 New York Film Festival premiere of “Gone Girl” with praise. Variety heralds Fincher's film, calling it “surgically precise, grimly funny and entirely mesmerizing over the course of its swift 149-minute running time.” The Hollywood Reporter is a little more tempered, noting that Fincher's film is “sharply made, perfectly cast and unfailingly absorbing melodrama,” but that “it leaves you with a quietly lingering feeling of: 'Is that all there is?'”
“Gone Girl” hits theaters Oct. 3.