Editorials
Remember When ‘Halloween: H20’ Used the Soundtrack From ‘Scream’?
On December 20th, Wes Craven’s classic slasher film Scream turns 20 years old. Many of you know how I feel about Scream. I’ve made my love for it and its sequels (yes, even Scream 3) apparent in the past, but the original really was a landmark film that redefined the horror genre. I’ll be spending this week writing a handful of posts about Scream (call it “Scream Week,” if you will) in the hopes that more people will join in on celebrating this wonderful film. This article is sort of a cheat since it is more about Halloween: H20, but it does show how influential Scream was on the horror genre in the years following its release.
Many of you may already know this story, but for the uninitiated, let’s start from the beginning. John Ottman was hired to compose the score for Halloween: H20 and compose it he did. You can still hear some of it in the finished film (I’m actually a fan of his re-tooling of John Carpenter’s theme in the opening credits), but certain segments during the more suspenseful scenes were switched out with segments of Marco Beltrami’s scores for Scream, Scream 2 and Mimic.
Most of Ottman’s score was removed because the producers (read: Bob Weinstein) wanted a darker and more imposing score, and they didn’t believe Ottman’s score fit that criteria. In the Making Of featurette on Anchor Bay’s Blu-Ray release of the film, editor Patrick Lussier actually admits that Ottman’s score felt like it was for a different movie, saying it was “over-orchestrated, very detailed [and] wasn’t a score for a Halloween movie…it was busy.” Though he did later admit that it was “good music in its own right but it just wasn’t right for the film.”
Understandably, Ottman “was horrified because [he] was the composer of that particular approach” to the score, lamenting that the new approach that ended up in the final cut was a standard slasher score. Unfortunately for Ottman, that approach tested better with test audiences.
Halloween: H20‘s release date was pushed up a month during post-production, giving the crew five days to retool the score. Had they more time, an entirely new score would have been composed. Since they had such limited time, Beltrami was flown in to re-do about half of the score. What remained of Ottman’s score was either edited heavily or used for scenes they weren’t originally intended to be used for. In some scenes parts of Ottman’s score was mixed in with Beltrami’s score, making for an hybrid pieces of music.
It’s an unfortunate situation for Ottman, but it does seem to have been the right choice for the film. It also shows just how good of a score Scream had, since it did work out pretty well for Halloween: H20.
To see an example of Halloween: H20 with Beltrami’s score, watch the clip below:
As you can see, it uses the same music from Tatum’s (Rose McGowan’s) death scene in Scream:
Sounds pretty similar exactly the same, huh? There are multiple uses of Beltrami’s scores all throughout the film, including the pre-credits sequence when Michael murders Nurse Chambers. You can still listen to Ottman’s full score though. It was released as a standalone album called “Portrait of Terror“, but clips of the film with the score weren’t actually released until Shout! Factory released the box set of the entire franchise back in 2014.
You can hear the original version here:
What say you on the matter? Which score do you prefer? You can listen to other comparisons on YouTube user Anthony Borga’s account (Or just buy Anchor Bay’s totally awesome box set of the whole series. It’s only $50 right now for the basic set and $180 for the Deluxe Set).
What say you on the matter? Which score do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below!
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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