John Carpenter Reveals New Halloween Kills Track, Just In Time For Spooky Season
If we're not going to get John Carpenter directing new "Halloween" movies, we can at least take some solace in the fact that his voice is still represented on the soundtracks. Carpenter's score is a huge part of the iconography of this trend-setting slasher series, and having him back is a fantastic way to keep the original identity of the series intact while letting some new blood guide the ship.
The legendary director teamed up with his son, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies to tackle the score for the latest David Gordon Green-helmed sequel titled "Halloween Kills" and, lucky us, we can listen to a second track from that score right now!
The Legacy of Carpenter's Music
Go to any genre film festival and you'll see the legacy of "Halloween," and more specifically its score, thriving. So many people love the feel of those iconic Carpenter scores (a lot of which were done in collaboration with Alan Howarth) and ... well, there's a lot of folks ripping it off still to this day.
This new track feels like authentic Carpenter. It's a bit more complex than his original "Halloween" work, but that's to be expected. He's had over 40 years of growth as a musician since then, and there's also the chemistry he has with his new collaborators to take into account.
Make sure to check out his more recent original albums, titled "Lost Themes," and you'll recognize the more updated feel to his music. This track certainly contains the mood and pulsing tension that Carpenter is known for.
An Iconic Theme Born Out of Necessity
I had the very good fortune to interview John Carpenter over the course of my online writing career, and there was one interview about 10 years ago where we talked very specifically about his "Halloween" theme.
First of all, he told me that acting as his own composer was born out of necessity. "Halloween" was a very low-budget film and they just flat out couldn't afford a composer, so he did it.
He felt he was "lousy at music" (his own words!), which is obviously not the case, but that's what drove him to the simplicity of the theme. He took a page out of Bernard Herrmann's playbook and tried his hand at using the unusual 5/4 time that he learned from his father when he was a boy. Thus was born one of the most influential music cues of all time, one that we're still talking about today.
"Halloween Kills" hits theaters on October 15, 2021, and with its release we'll get a whole new feature-length John Carpenter score to obsess over. It almost doesn't matter if the movie's any good or not, we're already winners!