The inimitable forerunner, Oscar winning composer Bernard Hermann’s searing score for Hitch’s PSYCHO in 1960 has held up for more than 50 years as one of the all time best cinematic scores. No bones about it. And while his undoubtedly most salient compositions wasn’t even nominated for an Academy Award, try to imagine how effective the infamous shower scene would be without those incendiary string arrangements. Unthinkable, right? Actually, that scenes was originally conceived to be silent, but when Hermann went ahead and set music to the scene anyway, Hitchcock was so impressed with the power of it, not only did he double Hermann’s salary, he publicly extolled the man’s work by claiming “33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.” I honestly can’t think of a more jarringly indelible film score. Can you?
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It’s no easy task shaking the jagged bombardment of low-pitch strings in John Williams’ classic Oscar winning score to Steven Spielberg’s JAWS. Frightening and momentously monastic, the relentless sawing perfectly punctuates the stints when our favorite man-eating Great White surfs for human lunch…it’s as equally biting as Bruce himself (the name of the troubled mechanical shark). An interesting aside, the year Williams won the Academy Award for this film, he was conducting the orchestra at the ceremony. When his name was announced, he quickly emerged from the orchestra pit to collect his statuette, then immediately went back down and continued with the procession. Tell me that’s not deserving. It’s also known that Spielberg originally scoffed at the Williams’ theme, saying “that’s funny, John, really. But what did you really have in mind for the theme of Jaws?” Steven has since gone on to say the movie would be half as successful without the score. Good call, Stevie!
Often described by John Carpenter as being scarier than anything else in the film, the theme song to the 1978 slasher staple HALLOWEEN has become nothing short of iconic. So simple, yet so foreboding…those repetitive high-pitch piano keys seep right into your psyche and alert you to a true sense of impending doom. What Carpenter does is foster a sense of dread through that exact repetition, and when those striking chords well up, you know some heinous shite is about to go down. Even better, Carpenter inundates us so heavily with the score that it almost becomes as inescapable as Michael Myers himself. And here’s a bit of trivia for you, word is Carpenter composed the score in a mere 4 days, a result of budgetary strictures. He also wrote the musical cues in a rare 5/4 time signature, a rhythm he learned from his pops. Not sure about you, but anytime I meet a new girl I want to scare the panties off of, I play her the Halloween theme. Works every time!
On a purely aural level, this is easily my favorite arrangement on the entire compilation. And while I tend to rock this song on my own from time to time, the way it’s used in the film – how it’s used and when it’s used – is nothing short of brilliant. Now, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is a nasty piece of business, anyone who’s seen it knows that. But by juxtaposing such unconscionable imagery with such a gorgeously divine stint of music, a strangely polarizing reaction is elicited. Visually, we’re horrified by what’s depicted onscreen…what with the barrage of animal cruelty and indefatigable rape scenes…but when Riz Ortolani’s heart-tugging score washes up, your senses are completely assaulted in way that sort of has a numbing effect on you. The emotional resonance of the brutality shown on screen is oddly subverted by the glorious sounds, and you’re just sort of left there in a violated trance.
More of an indigenous chant or some kind of ancient hymn, just because Jerry Goldsmith’s work on THE OMEN isn’t your typical film score, doesn’t mean it’s any less threatening. F*ck that, I easily find this one of the most harrowing and portentous on this here tribute list. It’s like you’re listening to the theme song to a dastardly religious cult. I feel like I’m in the orgy scene of EYES WIDE SHUT. The Latin intonation recited in the score is as follows: “Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani” which translates to “drink the blood, eat the flesh, raise the body of Satan.” Not exactly a nursery rhyme, ay? With well over 200 credits to his name, Goldsmith won his first and only Academy Award for THE OMEN, a feat that director Richard Donner doesn’t take lightly. Donner has often attributed the success of the film to Goldsmith, claiming his absence would have made the film much less scarier. I wholeheartedly agree!
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Now this here dirge is flat out petrifying. Using the harrowing refrain of a mother’s singing voice, perhaps Krzysztof Komeda’s best feat was getting star Mia Farrow to lend her own pipes to belt out the spine-tingling lullaby. There’s an eerie intimacy in knowing the beauteous sounds come from the woman in the film, but that scrim of innocence has a hint of something far more insidious just below the surface. Those sharp high-key piano riffs quickly become highlighted by Farrow’s simplistic, childlike chorus. Ethereal on its own, when you contextualize what Farrow’s character endures throughout the picture, a whole new meaning can be ascribed to the heart-wrenching music. Props to Farrow, who not only landed a Golden Globe acting nod, so did her work with Komeda on the original score back in 1969.
Elegant, entrancing, downright mortifying – Steve Boedekker’s work on THE EXORCIST, one of our beloved genre’s seminal achievements, may seem fairly innocuous on its own, but when played against the backdrop of little Linda Blair yakking up pea soup and beating off with a crucifix, the melodic tones take on a whole new life (or death, I could say). Apparently, famed Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin was originally tasked with scoring the film, but director William Friedkin tossed the reels into the street, dubbing them “Fucking Mexican Marimba Music.” Friedkin then employed spare classical compositions from Krzysztof Penderecki and some originals by Jack Nitzsche, and it wasn’t until the year 2000 that Boedekker found most of the credit. But truth be told, most of the sumptuous and chilling sounds in the film come from Mike Oldfields’ “Tubular Bells.”
Since Italian rock band Goblin kicks so much ass, I decided to split the love and recognize not one, but two Dario Argento collaborations. And while I could have easily singled out there work on Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD, I think their work on DEEP RED and SUSPIRIA rank among their finest work. Sure, DEEP RED is partly inspired by THE EXORCIST theme, but Goblin takes the melody to new heights with a bangin’ bass-line, intrusive drum beat and a wicked organ arrangement. SUSPRIA on the other hand, has a somnolent, dreamlike quality to start, then slowly mounts to a dizzying array of creepy whispering and ritualistic drum noises. Suddenly, about halfway through, the tone changes and a full-bore rock-operatic stirs up. Moody synthesizers and hazardous sound effects become punctuated by an intensifying pace. This shit f*ckin’ rocks!
How could we ever assemble a legitimate litany of film scores without doffing the cap to Italian maestro Ennio Morricone? We wouldn’t dream of such an omission. And believe us folks, this ain’t no clemency call. No, Morricone’s hauntingly spare score for John Carpenter’s THE THING is pitch perfect, starting with the thud of an electric bass note that gradually builds toward something more sinister. It’s simple but momentous, and like the events in the film, starts off serene but slowly grows to chaotic extremes, especially when the unsettling organ pitches and ancient Goth sounds pick up, Phantom of the Opera style. Interestingly, Morricone’s score was nominated for a 1983 Razzie Award, which is downright hogwash. Blasphemy. Bullshit. Let’s hope that dubious distinction isn’t the reason the film score is currently out of print.
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While I truly think the weeping trumpet in Lucio Fulci’s THE NEW YORK RIPPER is equally deserving, I’ve gone ahead and awarded the Italian splatter-king’s theme song to his 1981 horror opus THE BEYOND a coveted top spot. This song flat out f*ckin’ rules! Conducted by Fabio Frizzi (a longtime Fulci collaborator), the slammin’ bass-line and groovy choral accompaniments make you wanna go Beiber with it. You know the score has qualitative staying power when you actually look forward to playing the shite in your spare time, independent of the film itself. The marching drum roll, the eerie yet strangely uplifting refrain of the female voices, the looping flute-work, all of it come together to create something as outlandish as the film as a whole. Props to Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder company for releasing the uncut version of the film for the first time in the U.S. in 1998.
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