Oooh, scary! music - Part II

Something that needs to come back to the genre of horror is good-old fashioned air-bladder transformations. Make-up effects artists would slave over a creation of some fearsome creature and bring it to life. These days, all a person needs to do is swerve a mouse around on a computer and BAM! Instant creatures. It's my honest opinion that something tangible and right before your eyes is far scarier than anything that CGI can conjure. In the heyday of such old-fashioned effects work came The Howling.

News reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) tries to recuperate from an attack by serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). On the advice of psychiatrist George Waggner (Patrick Macnee), she and her husband travel to a retreat known as The Colony, only to find that what she escaped to is far more terrifying than what she's running from. This is a very effective thriller from Joe Dante with some suspenseful moments, impressive make-up effects from Rob Bottin (though one has to admit that the final werewolf design is more cute/silly than scary) and a fine score from Pino Donaggio.

The score works in a lot of fragmented motifs that Donaggio, nonetheless, develops beautifully. One example comes in the goofy yet anthemic "Hunting for Shadows", the electronic and guitar piece containing the "Channel 6 Update News Theme".

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the score is the theme I've termed "Karen's Anxiety". The melody interweaves electronics, chimes and some moaning voices for good measure, ably suggesting hyperventilation and loss of control. The theme appears in full in "Karen's Nightmare" and recurs throughout the score.

The other major theme is a folksy theme for guitar and light electronics. Introduced in "Doctor's Orders", it gets a fuller rendition in the "End Credits" (not to give anything away, but though the ending contains one of my pet peeves - the pathetically overused 'here we go again'/'killer's not dead' ending - this film is redeemed by the last line and the wonderfully tongue-in-cheek final shot), and a slower version (augmented with harmonica) appears in "Terry and Karen".

Most of the cues are comprised of suspense material, but it's very top-shelf. "Wolf Bites Man!" moves from typically tense string work to a horrifying gothic organ roll. "Animal Magnetism" stands out for the peculiar orchestrational choice of a toy piano. Horns and electronics highlight the show-stopping "Transformation".

Something that I've noticed is the beauty with which Donaggio infuses his horror scores. Such an example appears in the string work of "Welcome to 'The Colony'".

La La Land Records still has copies of the soundtrack available (though, at the current price of this and other fine titles, they may as well be giving it away), and isn't now the best time to take advantage of picking up this fine score?