Aleph Records release the the various composers score for Tales of Halloween. The film is a horror anthology featuring original music by Joseph Bishara, Michael Sean Colin, Christopher Drake, Christian Henson, Bobby Johnston, Jimmy Psycho, Sean Spillane, Edwin Wendler, and Austin Wintory. The film features main titles by legendary composer Lalo Schifrin, who’s son Ryan Schifrin directed one of the segments...

Eleven directors, renowned for their contribution to the horror movie genre, have joined forces to create a series of interconnected stories, each with a unique Halloween theme. Ten short films have been woven together by a shared theme of Halloween night in an American suburb, where ghouls, imps, aliens and axe murderers appear for one night only to terrorize unsuspecting residents.

The score for Tales of Halloween represents an impressive collection of composers all putting their own spin on the horror genre. However, the majority of the 15 tracks (1 hr, 05 min, 34 sec) are rather disappointing, being nothing more than cliched atmospheric horror cues. In fact Lalo Schifrin's main theme is easily the most impressive segment of music on the album. I also enjoyed the rock track 'Ding Dong'; the electric guitar based 'This Means War'; 'The Ransom Of Rusty Rex'; and 'He Will Never Leave You'.

As a side note, I couldn't help but be reminded of John Williams score for Jaws, as well as his 'The Moisture Farm' from Star Wars, when listening to Christopher Drake's ''The Ransom Of Rusty Rex'.

In fact, I think the album would have faired a lot better (as a standalone soundtrack) if Christopher Drake had scored the entire thing.

For those that enjoy horror scores, however, there will probably be much to appreciate here. The biggest issue is tracking down a copy, it only appears to be available to buy from the iTunes USA store.

Track listing:

01 - 'Tales of Halloween Main Title' (Lalo Schifrin)
02 - 'Sweet Tooth' (Christopher Drake)
03 - 'The Night Billy Raised Hell' (Bobby Johnston)
04 - 'Trick' (Joseph Bishara)
05 - 'The Weak And The Wicked' (Austin Wintory)
06 - 'Grim Grinning Ghost' (Christian Henson)
07 - 'Ding Dong' (Sean Spillane)
08 - 'This Means War' (Michael Sean Colin)
09 - 'Friday the 31st' (Joseph Bishara)
10 - 'Limbchoppalooza!' (Edwin Wendler)
11 - 'The Ransom Of Rusty Rex' (Christopher Drake)
12 - 'It's Not A Fucking Kid (Christopher Drake)
13 - 'He Will Never Leave You' (Christopher Drake)
14 - 'Bad Seed' (Christian Henson)
15 - 'Tales of Halloween' (Jimmy Psycho)

6

Darren Rea