John Carpenter - Halloween Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Sacred Bones)

John Carpenter revisits the music of Halloween with vital efficiency and proves he can still keep up with the darkness

John Carpenter could have merely gone through the motions and delivered a workmanlike score for the Halloween remake. Instead he fully commits with a vital efficiency. The album stands tall and menacing in its own right.

‘Intro’ pulls listeners back into the world of Halloween. It is brief yet steeped in mythology, atmosphere crawling about in the dry ice. The drums in the deep then sound out on the updated “Halloween Theme” and its take no prisoners industrial howl. Carpenter injects the past with something that isn’t new exactly, but still feels that way. He isn’t overly protective or cautious of the original. Rather he’s one with it, which makes for an exhilarating track that demands to be turned up very, very loud.

“Laurie’s Theme” suggests that going to sleep isn’t an option (of course it isn’t). “Prison Montage” doubles down on that joy with a vision of hope repeatedly springing up and being snuffed out. Yay! Hope is a lurking evil and the piano is eaten up by the crackle of static. The horror action cue “Michael Kills” is only outdone in the horror action cue stakes by “The Shape Kills”, which is a Bernard Herrmann assisted horror action cue. So far, so frighteningly effective.

Inside the synth cathedral of “The Shape Returns”, ghost hands reshape the “Halloween Theme” for the creeping unknown. Tree lined streets bleed away into the shadows. At least until the proto-Pye Corner Audio pulse of “Wrought Iron Fence” bursts through the darkness for a tantalisingly short time.

The machine is more than haunted on “Say Something”, where tendrils writhe under the surface electronics, wires brought to cold, shadowy life. “The Grind” must not be mistaken for a new dance style, although it will guarantee levels of foreboding increase exponentially when played within subdued suburban areas. Venn diagrams of unease are being drawn up to map all of this out.

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