Halloween: Expanded Edition - John Carpenter ( VINYL )

Orange & Black vinyl

Number of Discs: 2

2018’s Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and with music by series creator John Carpenter (along with his son and godson, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies) was a critical and box-office smash. It grossed $159 million against a $10 million budget, becoming the most profitable Halloween movie since the 1978 original. The soundtrack album was a hit, too, debuting at #12 on the Billboard Albums chart and #2 on the vinyl chart, on its way to becoming one of the most successful movie soundtracks of the last decade. One year later, Sacred Bones Records is pleased to present an expanded edition of the soundtrack, including more than 28 additional minutes of music from the film and presenting a more complete, immersive listening experience.

The additional material included on the expanded edition adds at total of 24 cues to the album, spread across two more sides of vinyl on the deluxe double LP version. The LP also has all-new art and lavish packaging, including an optical-illusion lenticular sleeve that makes the flames around Michael Myers’s mask dance when you slide it off the record jacket. For diehard fans of the Halloween series, collectors of John Carpenter’s music, or anyone who wants to hear even more of the incredible score to this movie, this expanded edition is a must-buy.

The soundtrack pays homage to the classic Halloween score that Carpenter composed and recorded in 1978, when he forever changed the course of horror cinema and synthesizer music with his low-budget masterpiece. Several new versions of the iconic main theme serve as the pulse of Green’s film, its familiar 5/4 refrain stabbing through the soundtrack like the Shape’s knife. The rest of the soundtrack is just as enthralling, incorporating everything from atmospheric synth whooshes to eerie piano-driven pieces to skittering electronic percussion. While the new score was made with a few more resources than Carpenter’s famously shoestring original, its musical spirit was preserved.

"We wanted to honor the original Halloween soundtrack in terms of the sounds we used," Davies explained. "We used a lot of the Dave Smith OB-6, bowed guitar, Roland Juno, Moog, Roland System 1, Roland System 8, different guitar pedals, mellotron, and piano."

Unlike the Lost Themes albums, where the composers wrote the soundtracks for imaginary movies, Halloween saw the Carpenters and Davies collaborating on music set to images for the first time. Though it marked a significant change from their previous creative process, the trio thrived under the constraints and tight deadlines that film scoring work demands.

"Being limited by the length of time in scoring the sequence, we focused on the director’s tempo, timing, and vision," Davies said. "He would tell us what he had in mind, how long the cue should be, what emotion he wanted, and we would take it from there. It’s only the three of us, there is no elaborate system. We wrote, performed, and orchestrated everything."

For John Carpenter, who reunited on the new film with original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, composing the score felt like a homecoming. Not only had he not worked on a Halloween movie in 35 years, he hadn’t composed a soundtrack since his 2001 sci-fi thriller Ghosts of Mars.

"It was great," Carpenter said of the experience. "It was transforming. It was not a movie I directed, so I had a lot of freedom in creating the score and getting into the director's head. I was proud to serve David Gordon Green’s vision."

For Cody Carpenter, John’s son, and Davies, his godson, it was surreal to work on something that means so much to generations of fans, and that they grew up around.

"It was an honor for us to be involved, and we are really happy to be a part of something that so many people are anticipating and excited about," Davies said. "Working together with both the director of the new Halloween and the creator of the original Halloween was really a fantastic experience."

Tracks
1 Intro
2 Aaron Meets Michael
3 Halloween Theme
4 Laurie's Theme
5 Aaron and Dana Enter Laurie's Compound
6 Laurie's Past
7 Prison Montage
8 Laurie Breaks Down
9 Karen's Flashback
10 Lumpy Explores Crash
11 Michael Kills
12 Hawkins Arrives at Crash Site
13 Dana's in the Shower
14 The Story of Judith's Death
15 The Gas Station
16 Michael Kills Again
17 Gas Station Aftermath
18 The Shape Returns
19 The Boogeyman
20 The Shape Kills
21 Hawkins Called to Babysitter's House
22 Laurie Sees the Shape
23 Babysitter Aftermath
24 Sartain Meets Laurie
25 Looking for Allyson
26 Wrought Iron Fence
27 The Shape Hunts Allyson
28 Talking to Cops
29 Allyson Discovered
30 Gun Closet
31 Halloween Theme (I've Got Eyes)
32 Sartain's Gone Mad
33 Say Something
34 Through the Woods
35 Ray's Goodbye
36 The Shape Attacks Laurie
37 The Shape Is Monumental
38 Searching for the Shape
39 Mannequin Panic
40 Death Drum
41 The Shape and Laurie Fight
42 The Grind
43 Trap the Shape
44 The Shape Burns
45 Halloween Triumphant