Soundtrack Review: The Power

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Soundtrack Review: Dead of Winter

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Soundtrack Review: Voces aka Don’t Listen

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Soundtrack Review: The Innkeepers

The Innkeepers
Released by Screamworks Records, 2012
14 Tracks with a total running time of 40 min.
Music by Jeff Grace

I was first introduced to Grace’s work with his incredible score for Stake Land, immediately started seeking out his other scores, and have been a fan ever since. This one just adds to the list.

The film is a very slow paced and moody piece, relying a lot on atmosphere, and the score blends perfectly with it, being very somber and slow paced but highly effective. There are a few faster paced tracks, but most of it is slow and steady, but damn does it work. Filled with lot of continuous or drawn-out notes, as if we’re waiting for something to happen, slowly building up that suspense and tension, it is a score to listen to when you’re trying to relax but will still raise the hair on the back of your neck!

Right from the Opening Title track, we get a nice hook that sets the pace. When you get to track 3, Right Behind You, you can just imagine sitting there and imagining something is right behind you. This track is beautiful in the way you have this low continuous string notes, then a quick few notes on the piano, then a long pause again before more piano. Really creepy and sets up the mood perfectly.

Highly recommend this score, as I would with just about any of Grace’s work!

Soundtrack Review: I, Frankenstein

I, Frankenstein
Released by Lakeshore Records, 2014
26 Tracks, with a total running time of 75 min.
Music by Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil

Okay, we can all agree that this is not a great movie. In fact, it is about as far away from Shelley as 2015 film Victor Frankenstein, and about as entertaining. But we are here to focus on the soundtrack, because as fans of movie music, we know that sometimes the music can be better than the film itself, and this is a perfect example.

The first word that comes to mind when listening to this score is epic. Right from the Main Title, it had my attention. I’m a sucker for operatic vocals in a score and this one starts out with this haunting voice over the building music. You can feel how big this movie is going to look just by the score. With a story about the title character fighting off demons and gargoyles throughout the running time, you need a big score to accompany it. And you have it here.

Klimek and Heil have created a great score here, one filled with quiet and somber themes, as well as cranking it up to the next level with plenty of pounding percussions, thundering strings, creating enough action in our ears that we can feel it.

While I can’t recommend the movie, which honestly is just damn silly, the score however is well worth seeking out.

Soundtrack Review: Dracula (1979) Deluxe Edition

Dracula (1979)
Released by Varese Sarabande, 2018
2-discs, 37 tracks total, with a total running time of 1:48:49
Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams

When I started to really get into soundtracks, one of the first horror ones that caught my eyes . . . or ears, technically, was John Williams score for the ’79 version of Dracula, starring Frank Langella. Now because of Jaws (1975) and more importantly Star Wars (1977), I knew the name John Williams pretty well. The soundtrack for Star Wars was the first soundtrack I ever bought and listened to that endlessly. After seeing this version of Dracula, I also fell in love with the score. That opening track alone is enough to capture your imagination. It immediately draws you in with that amazing opening cue and never let’s go. It has been one of my favorite scores, even after all these years. And . . . while this may upset some Williams’ fans, even after I started to notice and realize some of the similarities between this score and the one he did for Star Wars, that was done two years before, it has not changed my love of this soundtrack.

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Soundtrack Review: Symptoms

Symptoms (1974)
Released by Dragon’s Domain Records
10 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 38:59 min.
Music Composed by John Scott

The violin has always been one of my favorite instruments when it comes to setting an eerie mood, which is the first thing we hear when the score starts. Then composer Scott takes it up a notch, using some wind instruments (maybe a clarinet?) to further add some suspense, before going into some slow and echoing piano notes. All of this in the first track.

This isn’t a score that is going to fill you with a sense of terror or dread. But what it does hit is a lot of different levels of mood. There are several pieces that are very somber and almost peaceful, but then we’ll get a change where it almost tells the listener that something is about to upset that mood. The way the bass tones, sounding like from either a standup bass or maybe a cello, gives that deeper and darker sound to give more depth into what we’re feeling.

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Soundtrack Review: The Dark and the Wicked

The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
Released by Bandcamp
34 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 78 min.
Music by Tom Schraeder

As I mentioned in my review of the actual film, it’s a very strong and emotional draining ride, that constantly pulls at your emotions. And one of the things that helps with that is the score. This is not one with music per say, with melodies and such, but of sounds and emotions. And it works so well.

Schraeder uses a couple instruments, in very unusual ways, to create these amazing sounds that immediately put the viewer on edge. There are haunting piano notes given a slight echoing to them, or what sounds like metal slowly being dragged across another piece of metal, with different speeds and tones, but again, highly effective. A perfect example of that is track 8 – Not the Carrots, especially if you’ve seen the film which means you’ll probably remember the scene. It’s almost hard to watch and hear the music that Schraeder created for this, makes listening to it almost as effective as the visuals.

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Scored to Death – The Documentary!

Back in 2016, a book came out called Scored to Death: Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers, which I finally got around to reviewing in 2018. And then two years after that, in 2020, author J. Blake Fichera released a second volume, continuing his goal of bringing attention to these talented musicians who help enhance the scares and atmosphere in the movies we love. But now, Fichera is taking this one step further, by making a feature length documentary on these composers.

Scored to Death: The Dark Art of Scary Movie Music will be the first feature-length documentary that “explores the fascinating relationship between music and horror cinema.” Starting today, they have launched a Kickstarter campaign that will run through Halloween, hoping to raise the funds to make this project a reality. Production has already started, so fans of movie music need to make sure that it is able to continue.

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Soundtrack Review: Crimes of the Future

Crimes of the Future (2022)
Released by Mercury KK
17 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 38:13 min.
Music by Howard Shore

Ever since really getting into movie soundtracks and David Cronenberg films, I’ve always enjoyed what composer Howard Shore brought to his films. Each one was unique, different, and always fit the individual film so well, no matter the content or the subject matter. Shore always made the music part of the overall film experience. With Cronenberg’s latest, a return to the body horror genre he was known for, Shore once again doesn’t disappoint.

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