Kemper Gets Whacked does indeed propose a general picking up of the pace, with a violent orchestral outburst which jangles the nerves effectively enough, even if that's more the shock of noise, rather than through a relentless buildup, then release of tension. What is frustrating is that Jablonsky manages a few fairly decent orchestral passages, a four note string motif appears frequently and allows the music to be tense, while still maintaining some momentum. However, these are too infrequent and don't seem to actually go anywhere, at least nowhere outside yet another loud orchestral impact. The more exciting passages are fine enough; Andy Loses a Leg is appropriately horrific, with plenty of hammer blows, churning strings and wailing horns. If it doesn't quite hit a Goldenthalian fervor, it's certainly a decent imitation. The action centrepiece is Morgan's Wild Ride, which picks up from a fairly typical suspense dirge into a pounding, but cleanly orchestrated slice of excitement that could give Don Davis' horror scores a good run for their money. Prairie House and Final Confrontation aren't quite as impressive, but still a decent finale.
Jablonsky's contributions to Tears of the Sun did some good things with Zimmer's material and although the good passages of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre offer little new and aren't nearly as good, they are at least occasionally engaging and, in Mercy Killing, gruesomely operatic. Similarly, while not especially original, the action is orchestrated and mixed so that the banging and clanging doesn't overwhelm the cyclic string motifs and synthetic loops. Again, I must bemoan that, at over 50 minutes, the album is too long. A couple of the early and middle tracks could have been abandoned. I suspect the results would have been more action than horror, but at least that gets the pulse racing whereas the buildup does just the opposite. Above average as a modern horror score, although that does rather sound like damnation through faint praise.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 50:25