The video above is the Halloween 5- “Finale” track for the original cd release by Varese Sarabande- (I still got it)
When the actual Halloween theme kicks in half way through the track, the theme starts
Best version in my opinion of the entire series. When Alan Howarth came in he brought the electronic element to the series soundtrack. I am a 100% electronic music fan so it only makes sense. Which theme was your favorite? The original or one of Alan Howarth’s?
The main opening and ending Halloween theme in and of itself. H6’s theatrical score had a scene (I believe where Mrs. Strode was running from The Shape) with a great piano version of the main Halloween theme, but it was short. H2 was the best full theme among the sequels with the creepy organ music. H5’s end theme was quite good as well.
Interesting, most of you like H2- sounds very different to me
Alan did H5 as you know but man I just love the way he played it in H5. The “tapping” beat was the perfect sound. Not sure exactly why but I think it is because when I saw H5 it was the first time I had heard the theme (or saw any of the movies) since I saw the original since 1987. In 1987 I saw H1 on a local channel- fell in love with it and it’s theme. My mom didn’t want to let me see anymore of them till I was older. In 1990 - I rented H5 while spending the night at a friends house. His parents didn’t mind renting whatever we asked for
That night I watched it all the way through even to the end of the credits, and when that theme rolled it released dopamine in my brain- swear.
It was like an old friend I hadn’t seen in years and I just loved the way the theme sounded in H5. Since then the entire series has been an obsession originally dating back to 1987. Halloween in general has been a part of my being for 26 years of the 32 years I have been alive
There is only one true theme for me and that is '78. I know that may sound stupid, but when I hear the original I get goosebumps every time. And that goes for Laurie’s theme as well. The original all the way and I own all the sound tracks.
Really i think each theme was good in its own way setting a mood for each movie. Oddly enough, the two movies of the series which people seem to hate the most, have the best themes in my opinion. Halloween 5 and Ressurection I thought had really creepy themes.
You know…I really hate to say this, because I absolutely despise Resurrection and mostly choose to deny its existence, but damn it has such a great theme. Moody, haunting, it’s perfect. I love the echo-y kind of vibe.
Hmmm and I actually really enjoyed the huge, orchestrated version of the Halloween theme in the opening credits of H20. The set up is so cool. “Michael Myers…yeah right” then you hear the thunder outside and the theme starts slowly, almost teasingly then goes into full blown epicness. It really suits the movie, in the H20-lover’s humble opinion!
Shoot, I forgot, the main theme was done piano style in H6 when Kara went after Danny who went to the Myers/Strode house, that was the part that I love. H6’s theatrical version actually had most of the main Halloween themes done piano style at some point in the film and they sounded great, too bad the guitar tracks were used so much because the piano/keyboard and ambient score pieces were/are amazing.
The only part of the Halloween 4 score I thought was weak surprisingly was the main theme, it sounded a bit disco-like to me; other than that it is one of the most atmospheric horror film scores ever made in my opinion. Alan Howarth did a great job with the airy (and eerie) ambient elements of parts 4, 5, and 6, they just felt like Halloween time, felt like autumn.
My favorite would have to be the orchestral version in H20. Sure, maybe it’s very grandiose (whereas the original was very minimal), but it works in the context of the film. It kind of shows that Michael Myers has gone from mere murderer to a legend.
Resurrection is a horrible movie, but the one thing it got right was the theme. Simple, yet moody.
My favorite score of the series is Halloween II, but that’s so unfair, since most of the tracks were literal remixes of John’s score from the original film. Howarth basically took the original 8-track recording and played synthesized overdubs of the main theme, and the Shape Stalks theme.
Before Alan Howarth there was Dan Wyman…and this man actually deserves more credit than Howarth. Dan Wyman started working with John back in the Assault days, into Halloween and finally, The Fog. He did exactly what Alan did, set everything up for John. John met Dan at USC, where he (Dan) taught classes on synthesizers, imagine that. Dan remembers the alotted time in making the score for Halloween…about 1 week, differing from John’s “2 days to 2 weeks” comments.
Dan Wyman-
… there was very little “improvisation” coming out of [Carpenter’s] fingers for the famous themes. He knew what he wanted. I programmed/created the sounds themselves, according to what he had in his “mind’s eye,” and he played his themes. I tried to imagine what he was hearing in his head … for instance the “ticking” that makes Halloween so tense throughout. At that time, minimalism was just being heard in contemporary concert music—Steve Reich’s early works like “Violin Phase” or “It’s Gonna Rain.” That was particularly in my head, to add to what Carpenter visualized. Do remember that there were no computers, no storage of sounds, except for the Oberheim, which I generally did not use. Musicians with synthesizer skills and orchestration skills had to try and figure out what a producer/director wanted from mostly verbal description. The keyboards were monophonic, but the audio outputs by no means were monophonic. I ganged multiple oscillators together through the Moog mixers, and those went out to the VCA’s (voltage controlled amplifiers) which hit the studio mixers/recorders. Thus, one key could play semitones at once, yet the output was in stereo. However, we may have played the effect… on two keyboards or more. I say “we” because John did not do all the playing. He played the now famous themes, of course, and cues that were recorded with an acoustic piano in our studio as well. Beyond that, I filled in many harmony lines, sound effects, and sonic textures.
I like Alan but his “own” scores, including Halloween 4, 5, 6 are basically sound-effects and musically, just tones and very basic in my opinion. Under the watchful eye of John is when Alan’s best days are: Halloween II, Escape from New York, Halloween III, The Thing (The secret scoring) and Christine. I’m not really a BIG fan of anything after those; I feel John expanded the realm of the simple themes forgetting what made a good score, repetitiveness and keeping it very simple.
I’ll add another vote for Halloween H20. I’ve always enjoyed classical music, so this theme just does it for me. Also H20 is my second favorite film in the franchise behind the original, and it’s the first Halloween film that I saw in theaters, so it holds a special place in my memory. I also really like the Halloween II theme, especially the first minute building to the main theme. Too bad I don’t like the movie as much as the theme.
-Tom
