My Favorite Themes - Part XVI

Score: The Howling by Pino Donaggio (Dressed to Kill)

About the film: Traumatized by an attack by a mad killer, news reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) goes with her husband to a retreat known as The Colony to recover, little dreaming that danger awaits her there, as well. Alternately scary and amusing, this film features astounding transformation effects from (then 19-year-old) Rob Bottin and all the in-jokes one would expect from a Joe Dante film.

Title: "Karen's Anxiety". An ingenious see-sawing string motif augmented with celeste, electronics and Donaggio's trademark weird voices that pretty well captures the fear faced by the heroine ("The Howling", "Eddie Lives Again").

Other themes of interest: This is a score more driven by mood than melody, though it's a fantastic mood, with several tracks evoking fright ("Run for Your Life!") and (surprisingly) heartbreak ("Welcome to the Colony"). The only other theme to speak of is a fine folksy melody for "The Colony", best heard in "Doctor's Orders" and in the "End Credits", as well as a slow rendition in "Terry and Karen". (Interestingly, the weird synth music that begins "Hunting for Shadows" is reconfigured into the amusing "Channel 6 Update News Theme".)

Availability: Damned if those guys at La La Land Records haven't done it again.