Don't make me call it Shocktober: vol. IX

I've never seen this film (which carries the cumbersome alternate title Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn), but here's a helpful plot summary from the IMDB: "Two campers in the New Jersey woods have their outdoor fun interrupted by the arrival of a meteorite crashing nearby. They go to investigate the crater, but are suddenly attacked and devoured by alien parasites who have hitched a ride to Earth. After finishing off the campers, the hungry space monsters head for a nearby town, where they make their domain in the basement of an old house soon begin polishing off one hapless inhabitant after another. Four young teenagers, plus one pre-teen boy, try to find a way to stop the angry space monsters before they reproduce and literally eat humanity."

Yet, here I am reviewing the soundtrack. Why? Remember what I said last year about the power of simple themes? Well, there you go. For a film that cost all of 25 grand, one would expect the music to sound cheap and ridiculous. The opening track "The Landing of the Meteorite", with its cheesy sound design, would certainly bear that out...

...but then Michael Perilstein throws out a glorious sucker-punch with the second track, "Afternoon of a Spawn": a wafting, dreamlike flute melody backed by ethereal synth work.

The attack motif would fall into the category of silly 80s electronics or would it? "Creeping Right Along" introduces this melody, a descending melody with a bouncing synth backbeat. It's really quite fun when you get into it.

"All That Slithers is Not Good" slows down the main theme while adding drum hits. "Let's Spawn", while hinting at the pop backbeat of the "End Credits", is also content to riff on the main theme.

This is not to say that the CD is entirely free of harsh electronics. "Spawn Lake" and the latter portion of "The Spawn Who Came in From the Cold" may turn some people off. ("The Spawn Who..." - before its ending - features one of the more evocative renditions of the main theme, played on piano.)

"Spawn with the Wind" makes for yet another surprise: a laid-back, longuey piece for guitar and keyboards. Continuing in this vein, yet based more on the main theme, is "Here Today, Spawn Tomorrow", which adds a noodling drum kit to the prior orchestrations.

"Spawn, But Not Forgotten" reworks the themes as if the film were being scored today. "Spawn with the Wind" (a love theme, if one can believe it) comes off better than the main theme, while "Spawn of the Dead" introduces new material for a potential follow-up.

On a final note, the liner notes of this release, while including the obligatory look back at the movie, are insane. I don't want to spoil anything, but someone clearly had a fun time putting this package together. At this writing, Perseverance Records still has 217 copies of this soundtrack left. One could do far worse than giving this score a chance.