13 Scores of Halloween - Day 12

Getting back to a composer I talked about earlier in the series, Brian Tyler has worked on a number of features in the last few years. Some have been good, but others...not so much. Exhibit a: Darkness Falls.

The small town of Darkness Falls has been visited by the spirit of a vengeful woman who was long ago accused of killing a child and hanged. The spirit goes by 'The Tooth Fairy' for reasons I could not be bothered to remember. The rest dissolves into a blur of incredibly unlikable secondary characters and lame attempts at fright. Seriously, folks, you could do much better.

Tyler's score doesn't really make the film watchable, but it is damn good. The main theme is a four note melody that represents the town of Darkness Falls and the ever-present threat of...The Tooth Fairy. (Oy.) It recurs throughout the score; a brilliant transistional version in "Overhead", a beautifully tense string take in "We Are Safe in Here" and a violent sounding horn rendition in "A Bit Crispy".

An eleven-note (!) melody on horns, high strings and bells figures into cues like "Evil Rises" and "Der Zylinder", a perfect match for the constant running the characters are doing to survive.

There is also a very touching love theme on piano and oboe that tries to sell a romance between the film's only remotely interesting characters, Kyle and Caitlin, appearing in "One Kiss" and "Blood Red Herring".

Varese Sarabande released this score, thereby sparing grateful fans of the music the dreadful film for which it was written. (Clips from the score can be found at Tyler's website. I'd have linked them, but they're 'javascripted'.)

Tomorrow: Oh, take a freakin' guess!

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.