Search Results for: horror soundtracks

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CD Review: ED WOOD and JIMMY P. soundtracks

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/31/2014
ED WOOD and JIMMY P. soundtracks | ©2013 Howe Records

When it comes to Howard Shore this holiday season, it’s going to be all about THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG. But if you’re on a quest to hear the composer’s more esoteric, but equally rewarding work, than you’ll find his Howe Records label offering a treasure trove of Shore’s past, and present scores, including COSMOPOLIS‘ trance limo ride to hell, the charming, Oscar-nominated imagination in HUGO‘s Parisian train station and the ticking clock of the worst AFTER HOURS in an NYC shlep’s life. Now Shore’s versatility sounds off with two new Howe releases, one dealing with a psychologically wounded Native American […]Read On »


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CD Review: RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION and THE APPARITION soundtracks

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/14/2012
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION soundtrack | ©2012 Milan Records

Horror scoring seems to be rapidly transforming into some ungodly beast, composed of mutated sound effects, shrieking percussion and shards of what stands for melody. Not that this raging sonic flesh is such a bad thing, especially when in the hands of Tomandandy. Known to their relatives as Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn, this duo has been responsible for any number of innovative works for the genre, including THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR and THE HILLS HAVE EYES. Now after accompanying Alice against the Umbrella corporation for RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, the composers make that adventure seem positively sedate […]Read On »


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CD Review: 2011’s Best Soundtracks: The Runners-Up and Composers to Watch

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/09/2012
SUPER 8 soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

It was hard to whittle down the year’s best scores to ten top picks, let alone ten runners-up. Here are the best of a close batch of scores that are far more than second-runs, followed up by the budding composers to watch. ALBERT NOBBS (Brian Byrne /, Varese Sarabande) Irish composer Brian Byrne takes up residence in 19th century Dublin for the upstairs/ downstairs cross-dressing-by-necessity of “Albert Nobbs.” While there’s a sprightly, Gaelic-accented classical sound to the happy-go-lucky strings and harpsichord that propels this not-so proper man of the hotel about, Byrne gradually looks behind the confident veneer to discover […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE / HORROR EXPRESS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/24/2011
Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue (c) 2010 Quartet Records

That isn’t to say that Spanish horror scores from that period were any less terrifying, or funky, as Spain-based Quartet Records is proving with such releases as Waldo de los Rios’ ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and Fernando Garcia Morcillo’s HOWLING OF THE DEVIL. But perhaps none of their soundtracks has a more unique origin than Giluliano Sorgini’s THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.


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CD Review: BLACK SWAN / FASTER soundtracks

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/29/2010
© 2010 Sony Classical | Black Swan Soundtrack

Clint Mansell has always felt the need for speed, let alone the seeming urge to accompany more mental disintegrations than a national tour of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST. Taking the next evolution from playing with Pop Will Eat Itself to make a stunning alt. scoring debut with 1998’s PI (a film that also marked the debut of his frequent auteur collaborator Darren Aronofsky), Mansell’s prolific, and usually innovative output has combined the shredding rhythms of industrial rock, the lush melodic reaches of a symphony orchestra and enough minimal chord progressions to rate a celebrity death match with Philip […]Read On »


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CD Review: CREEPSHOW soundtrack (3,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/31/2014
CREEPSHOW soundtrack | ©2014 La La Land Records

From the time when the denizens of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD shambled through its farmhouse field to the tune of creature feature stock music, George Romero’s horror films have had a pulp throwback feel to them that recalled the graphic, moral comeuppance of such E.C. comics as “Tales From the Crypt” and “Vault of Horror.” So it was only natural that the filmmaker would unleash his own cinematic, blood-colored anthology with 1982s CREEPSHOW, authored by no less than Stephen King. It’s a film that for many remains the director’s most unhinged and pleasurable effort, especially with its seamless combination […]Read On »


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Interview: THE CABIN IN THE WOODS composer David Julyan tortures with the technicians

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/29/2012
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

Did you ever hear the one about a bunch of horny kids heading out to a secluded, rustic getaway that will turn out to be anything but a vacation? Chances are you’re familiar with the now-hopelessly clichéd plots of horror pictures both brilliant and bad, the kind of movies whose characters always seem to be following some pre-ordained destiny of bad choices so they’ll fall into the blunt instruments, or jaws of redneck zombies, masked maniacs, werewolves, killer clowns and all of manner of Cthulu’s menagerie- of course to the strains of a relentlessly crashing orchestra. It’s exactly these well-worn […]Read On »


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CD Review: FINAL DESTINATION 5 soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 08/28/2011
FINAL DESTINATION 5 soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

Death wasn’t proud when it took Shirley Walker after her three, mordantly thrilling scores to the FINAL DESTINATION saga. And though its fifth verse is the same as the first, Walker’s black-humored approach has been continued with telltale, twisted finesse by Brian Tyler, who joined the franchise with entry four. Even with all those numbers, the series has arguable found its best footing since the original with five, buoyed on by Tyler’s bombastic approach that plays each ghastly Rube-Goldberg gore wind-up with the freshness of the series’ first death. Beginning with a rock guitar and orchestral head banger that throws […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/24/2011
House By the Cemetary (c) 2010 Beat Records

Where POLTERGEIST stands as a landmark in how mostly traditional instruments and orchestrations could be used to create an unearthly tone, rock-centric music certainly wasn’t a slouch at digging into those same fear centers, perhaps with even more chilling results. It’s likely no band did it better than Goblin, an Italian group that turned the progressive vibe pioneered by the likes of Pink Floyd and Zeppelin to far darker ends, using acid builds of electronics, strumming guitars and wailing voices to become escalating webs of fear, the big solo usually accompanying some unlucky woman’s evisceration in such classic scores as DEEP RED and SUSPIRIA.


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CD Review: POLTERGEIST Special Edition (10,000 Edition) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
Poltergeist (c) 2010 Film Score Monthly

Certainly one of the loudest, and most exciting horror scores belongs inside the television set of the Freeling family, as installed by Jerry Goldsmith. Though a master of just about every movie genre, horror had provided a creatively malefic voice for Goldsmith. He’d marry Bartok-esque impressionism and old scratch violins for THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, blow on MAGIC’s unbalanced harmonicas and win his only Oscar for chanting THE OMEN’s black mass.


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