13 Scores of Halloween - Day 5

Stephen King is arguably one of the most prolific authors of our time, and one certainly should take into account the number of cinematic adaptations that have been produced based on his work. But not all of them are masterpieces: for every Misery or Shawshank Redemption, there is, however disproportionately, a Mangler or Silver Bullet. Falling somewhere in the middle is a work based on a book from his 'Richard Bachman' period, Thinner.

Obese lawyer Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) is...distracted on the road one night and he runs down an old gypsy woman. He gets off with a slap on the wrist, so the woman's even older father (Michael Constantine) places a curse on him, making him...well, thinner. It's a blessing at first, but soon, Halleck literally starts wasting away. It's watchable, but never really enjoyable. The cinematography is nice, as are the make-up effects, and Joe Mantegna makes the most of his mob enforcer role.

Daniel Licht started out as an associate of Christopher Young, and while there are some 'Youngisms' here and there, his score is a dynamic and original work. The main theme is a soulful, exotic piece of music that, in the "Main Titles", starts off on solo violin and is augmented by tambourine and cymbalom.

Derived from the main theme is a melody that seems to represent the threat of the gypsy magic as it takes hold of Halleck and his friends who got him off. The melody dominates the first half of "Duncan's Curse", while the latter half introduces a harmonica melody reminiscent of Goldsmith's Magic (if you really wanted to be a jerk about it, you could call it the same damn motif).

Much of the score moves along with wavering strings and occasional visits from the cymbalom, but then, along comes something like "Time to Move On", which is marked by an amusing, carnivalesque take on the main theme.

This is yet another one of those scores that is only available used at Amazon.com, but they do good work. Definitely if you like peculiarity in your music.

Tomorrow: Two sides of the same coin.