Brow Beat

Trent Reznor’s Gone Girl Soundtrack Sounds Like an Eerie, Innovative Success

Reznor in his element.

Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images

Trent Reznor and David Fincher have a good thing going. Gone Girl marks the third soundtrack Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross have done for the director, and the relationship has borne some serious fruit—the duo picked up an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination, respectively, for their work on The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Based on “The Way He Looks At Me,” our first peek at the Gone Girl soundtrack, that success seems likely to continue.

Fincher had a particular vision for the film’s music: he wanted something seedy and reminiscent of “the really terrible music you hear in massage parlors.” Though it’s but a small preview, “The Way He Looks At Me” does that description justice, evoking an eerie, skittish mood that would seem of a piece with Gone Girl’s unreliable narrators and breakneck pulp narrative. It’s disorienting, innovative work, and just another reason to get excited for the film’s Oct. 3 release.