INTRADA Announces:
THE BEAST WITHIN
Composed and Conducted by LES BAXTER
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 132
Intrada's latest release from the MGM vaults features Les Baxter's final horror score -- the 1982 film The Beast Within. While a clear evolution from such earlier Baxter scores as The Terror and Cry of the Banshee, dark, percussive effects, lurching orchestral movements and buzzing electronic atmospheres take this score to a whole new level. Like the story’s distraught teenager, Baxter’s score is a beast in a human body -- featuring sympathetic, melodic shards that represent humanity that are constantly tortured and chiped away by jagged, dissonant effects. It’s a relentless musical spirit, with Baxter’s themes building on top of each other until all hell breaks loose. And though The Beast Within would essentially be his swan song to the genre, the 60-year-old composer showed that he could be still be savagely energetic and experimental.
The Beast Within emerged from a brief description in a book publisher’s catalogue, the story of a cellar-enslaved man’s transformation through his forced consumption of human corpses. While author Edward Levy hadn’t written the actual Beast book yet,upcoming screenwriter Tom Holland (Fright Night) revised the concept. Holland’s imagination broke the beast who used to be Billy Connors free from his chains, and rapes an unfortunate newlywed bride whose car has stalled in Mississippi. Seventeen years later, her son Michael finds himself possessed by Billy’s spirit, which drives him to kill his father’s tormentors―with each attack transforming the teenager further until Billy’s ghastly form takes final possession of his son’s body.
This release is limited to 1000 units.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 132
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE 5/24/2010
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6609/.f
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