A quick jaunt over to movie review meta-site RottenTomatoes.com is sufficient to demonstrate that those among the cinema-reviewing press who have seen the movie that this soundtrack accompanies have not thought much of it. Thankfully, then, Godal and Fontana, perhaps alone among the creative forces behind this film, have chosen not to go for cheap shocks in their score. It certainly would have been easy to go a different route: how many Rob Zombie-esque "edgy" pieces have been foisted on the moviegoing public in a vain attempt to generate tension or fear in the viewer?

Instead of spewing jarring power chords and faux-industrial audio frippery, Erik Godal and Mark Fontana (who are also two members of the tiki/lounge band Blue Hawaiians) have chosen to create a brooding, string-and-woodwind-heavy exercise in restraint and atmosphere. Naturally, other elements are thrown in as needed: a clean, echoing guitar and the occasional electronic scrape serve to remind us of just what we're listening to. Still, the overwhelming effect of listening to Gacy is a sense of calm derangement, as if the peripheral feeling that the music conveys (of a slightly unreal reality) were the most pleasant thing in the world to observe. It's the sound of well-adjusted insanity, a sound that certainly conveys the complexities of a man who was able to be both birthday-party clown and serial murderer of young men.

Then, in a truly weird turn, the album closes with a combination of full-on pop song ("Cruel World") and a reprise of the opening theme. The song is perfectly upbeat and positive, to the point that it's impossible to hear it as anything but a hideous juxtaposition with the subject matter. It's either a huge lapse in taste, or (far more likely) a final, clever irony played out by two very thoughtful composers.

In a world of soundalike film scores, it's a damn shame that one this good has ended up attached to a film about which no one seems to have a nice thing to say. The film might not have another redeeming quality, but having spawned this disc, it can be judged a worthwhile endeavor.