Intrada Soundtrack Forum

With Halloween almost here, I decided to check out the movie on Blu Ray, seeing that the last time I saw it was probably on video tape. I'd never seen the film in all its rightful glory. Having lived with the original Varese soundtrack, I decided to track down their 20th Anniversary edition and see just what was what.

Comparing the two releases, the 20th Anniversary is superior in a couple of regards. First is the removal of that thump thump thump rhythm that was added to the main theme on the original Varese release. No idea why it is there, as it's not in the film and not on the Anniversary CD and frankly the theme plays better without it. Second, the Anniversary addition, while mastered at a lower volume, has a nice stereo spread, whereas the original Varese seems to mix everything to the center, making it psudeo-mono.

I decided to create my own CD program, removing all the dialog tracks from the Anniversary addition and cutting down the repetition. Carpenter has 4 or 5 ideas that he uses, and then repeats them with little if no variation. I ended up with a 21 minute program that essentially covers all the original material. In fact I did leave some redundancy in, like having the score return to the Halloween theme to keep it consistently woven throughout the score. The only challenge was "Halloween 1963" which has ideas that only appear once in the score and only with dialog on the Anniversary edition, so I had take that track from the original Varese CD. Also to create a main title without dialog, I took the end title and did an 8 second fade at the 1:50 mark. That way I didn't simply repeat the end title and have it feel like you're hearing the same cue again.

So for experts out there, let me know if I have done anything egregious, but I think it's all here:

1.  Main Title – Halloween Theme (1:58)
2. Halloween 1963 (3:11)
3. Halloween 1978 (2:51)
4. The Shape (1:43)
5. The Hedge (1:36)
6. The Haunted House (1:44)
7. Lock the Door (2:52)
8. He’s Here (:56)
9. The Shape Stalks Laurie (1:34)
10. Halloween Theme (3:33)

Roger,

Thanks Roger, loved your suggestions for Halloween.

i'm a completist and love to have the most complete releases possible, but I find myself more and more creating condesed playlists of some scores that are a bit too long or repetitive. Some time ago I started a thread at FSM for people to include their suggested album arrangements of some scores, it resulted in some great suggestions.

i already included your suggested IT playlist at my iPod, I remember you or Doug mentioning that you had a preferred album arrangement for Hellfighters, I'd love if you could post that.

i've noticed that Intrada abandoned the idea of releases with an album arrangement and extras section in their releases. In fact I tend to prefer C&C releases, but I'd suggest that a recomended playlist could be included in the booklet, it helps on longer scores when we're not very familiar with.

I never picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition because of the dialogue, which I understood was over the music in several cases. Are the improvements to the sound that striking, because I might be interested…

I never cared for soundtracks with dialogue, especially over the music. If I wanted to hear dialogue, I'd watch the damn movie!
I held onto my original Varese for that exact reason. And while I agree that the sound on the 20th Anniversary Edition is better, I often find myself listening to the original Varese more because of its lack of dialogue.

I like Roger's idea... put together a mix version. I should have done that a long time ago.

I wonder if we'll ever get a complete edition without dialogue.

I own both Vareses and that anniversary CD but it must have been 10-15 years since i listen to this thou i love Carpenter/Howarths music

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Mondo Records recently released the first-ever official release of the complete score for Halloween on double LP. As of this writing, there are still copies available so snag it while it's only 37 bucks after tax and shipping because you know the price will skyrocket the moment it sells out. Plus you could be 1 of those 500 people that get lucky enough to snag an orange one.

Here's the link: .

I ordered mine on Halloween when it was officially put up for sale and Mondo sent an automatically generated email out stating that fulfillment of order may take 3-4 weeks so I have not received mine yet but if you do some digging, I'm sure you can find a track listing. Images of the back are shown on Mondo's site but are too low-res to be legible when zoomed in on. You can still tell though that the track list will be pretty hefty through the blur. I'm pretty excited for mine to come in.

It's pressed on 180g double LP (most units black, random limited units orange) at 45rpm with album art to die for. Seriously, that cover is amazing and the interior looks pretty nice as well. If you're lucky, you can find the pretty neat but sold out in minutes vinyl slip mats with the Shatner mask on one and a pumpkin on the other for a price that isn't highway robbery. I ended up buying the vinyl/slip mat bundle on eBay for 75 bucks so when I figured everything up, I just slightly overpaid for the bundle but just to have them is nice. I almost lost them at the very last second but thank whoever for the eBay iPhone app, right? In the end, I ended up with 3 copies. One a guaranteed orange and the other two will just have to be a surprise.