13 Scores of Halloween - Day 2

Now, I've never seen Terror Tract, and from the sounds of it, it seems like an interesting feature: A real estate agent (John Ritter) is showing a house to a couple. The house's history includes three twisted tales: a young man trying to dispose of his girlfriend's corpse, a father (Bryan Cranston) facing off against a monkey and a granny-mask wearing killer.

According to the liner notes of the La La Land Records soundtrack (guess I spoiled the surprise of its availability, huh?), the direct-to-video release premiered on USA. It doesn't seem to be available in video stores, so why doesn't the network air it? I'm sure they can bump at least one "Law and Order" marathon for the month, right? Or how about the Sci-Fi Channel? Like the film could possibly be worse than the warmed-over crap that shows up every weekend!

Anyway, Terror Tract was one of the first film scores composed by then-unknown Brian Tyler. His voice is loud and clear in this effort and he continues to prove himself one of today's most promising new voices in film music.

The seven-note main theme receives a delightfully thunderous treatment in the opening and closing credits, but it's the softer variations that stand out to me, such as in the heartwarming "Animal Farm", the rapturous "Father and Daughter" and the unbearably tense "Vision".

"Tragedy" is noteworthy for its swirling strings which give way to a cruel, yet melancholy psuedo-waltz. The ascending 'B' section from the "Main Titles" appears in a slightly distended and percussive form at the beginning of "Revenge", while "Searching" is earmarked by weird (in a good way) orchestral effects.

"The Lake" features folksy, almost romantic acoustic guitar music, while "Psycho Suburbia" is (from what I've read online) the finale track, which goes batshit in the great tradition of Pino Donaggio (more on him next week). Haunting male voices are to be found amongst the orchestral rumblings in "Wrong Guy".

And then there's "Bobo", the circus-like theme for the aforementioned monkey on piano and chimes. (Listen for the subtle rendition in "Whirlwind of Chaos".)

The score's still available at La La Land Records for an affordable (almost insultingly so) price, so do check it out.

Tomorrow: The price of playing God.