Silent Hill (2006) and the expressive use of video game score

Academic Film literature has already established that a significant amount of a Horror film's tension can be constructed through its score. I really enjoyed the class example of Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) - where the simple visual sequence of Marion driving lost most of its 'punch' simply by muting the film. But I am interested in how the style of video game score, a subject area still adolescent in its academic exploration, can enhance tension in these films.

I missed Silent Hill (2006) in its theatrical run but I impulsively purchased the DVD last week and was quite pleasantly surprised! I was expecting the same rushed, low art, mass appeal-style adaptation like Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) and Doom (2005), but as Rose awakens from her crash and enters the town in search of her daughter - i found that a very different kind of score begins to consume the audioscape, giving the film a much more expressive feel. Interestingly enough I discovered from Wikipedia that some of the score from this scene is a direct sample from the video game!

As Roze gazes through the mist and begins to call out for her daughter and for help, the music drives up subtly but dramatically. As this non-diagetic audio track quickly overpowers her diagetic cries for help, I already feel that her situation is hopeless in a new and different way than I have previously experienced with horror. The music falls silent with the clang of a metal pipe as the welcome sign to Silent Hill is revealed. Then a more classical horror score takes over - with elements of clanging metal, a low bassy growl, and a sinister-silophone children's tune all layered under her diagetic footsteps. But as she enters the center of town we witness a series of disorienting tracking shots accompanied by an alien-electronic humm. As these stabilize visually we re-enter the video game score style - kicked off by an audio sample i could only describe as "the non-diagetic sound that accompanied each of Neo's footseps as he entered the lobby in The Matrix". This next sequence builds on this, using this video-game audio mode to pick up the pace as Rose catches a glimpse of her daughter and hurriedly follows in pursuit. But the space expands and Rose is left isolated oncemore - which again cues a more passive and traditional horror score.

I find this interplay between the traditional mode of scoring and the video game mode facinating and this is the first film i've seen thats used it so effectively. If anyone wants to defend the scores from Resident Evil or Doom i'm keen to start a debate thread here :)