Movies
John Carpenter Wrote the ‘Halloween’ Theme In An Hour
Out today, John Carpenter Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 brings together 13 classic themes from Carpenter’s illustrious career together in one volume for the first time. It all started back in 1978 with his indie slasher Halloween, which boasted one of the greatest themes and soundtracks of all time.
In an interview with CoS, Carpenter explains his process for scoring Halloween, which led to two shocking reveals:
“For both Assault [on Precinct 13] and Halloween, I go into a studio and depending on how much time I had, I’d do several pieces. For Assault, I had a day; for Halloween, I had three days,” Carpenter revealed, further clarifying he only had three days to write and record “the whole score.” As for the iconic theme, get this…
“That theme was done in like an hour. We moved on.”
It sounds as if writing and recording the Halloween score was like catching lightning in a bottle. I’ve heard many musicians say that their best work came to them in one sitting/session/recording, while elaborating that the more tinkering that has to be done, the worse off the song would become.
In regards to the forthcoming Universal/Blumhouse sequel that he executive producing and scoring, he explains what his process will be this time around.
With the new Halloween coming out next year, would you want to try to write new themes or would you rework the old ones?
“I would talk to the director about it, see what he needs,” he explained. “Although there are several ways of doing it. We could refurbish the old score, we could maybe do a brand-new score, we could do a combination. It all depends. So, that’s something I’ll sit down with him, spot the movie, and decide what to do.”
Jamie Lee Curtis is reprising the role of Laurie Strode in next year’s film, while Judy Greer is in talks to play Laurie’s daughter, Karen Strode. David Gordon Green is directing.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.