Milan Records releases Music From the Netflix film Fear Street Part 1: 1994 – the first in a trilogy of horror stories set across three time periods by composers Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp. The film, directed by Leigh Janiak and based on R.L. Stine’s best selling horror books, a group of teenagers discover the terrifying events which have plagued their town of Shadyside for 300 years may be connected. For the score Beltrami returns to the feel of his Scream music, as this film is somewhat inspired by Wes Craven’s popular part-parody. He has scored many films, including 3:10 to Yuma, The Hurt Locker, Logan, Terminator 3, I Robot, A Good Day to Die Hard, World War Z, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Other projects include Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the latest series of The Twilight Zone for TV, and Fortnite for the hit video game. Marcus Trumpp has scored for, among others, The Woman in Black, Love and Monsters, and the computer games Medal of Honour and GUN. He has also composed various concert pieces – including Northmen: A Viking Saga. Fear Street Part 1 is available for download...

It would be tempting to venture the opinion that this soundtrack isn’t anything you wouldn’t have heard before in a 1990s slasher movie. However, that’s kind of the point. The intention from the beginning was that the composer would return to his Scream score as a basis for the setting of Part 1 of the film and, accordingly, the soundtrack. So, of course, we get all the expected jump scares: slamming, frantic strings and chaotic confrontational noise. There are plenty of terror sequences, and so any counterpoint to this becomes more poignant. The quieter moments have more meaning but are few and far between. For example, 'Morning in Shadyside' has speculative quiet pieces which are cloaked with the air of menace. 'Skullmask' has a music box-style opening, but fluttering piano soon turns orchestral and sinister – jumping between plaintive and slasher-shocking.

It’s not all predictable though. I like the main titles a lot. There are inventive sound effects, an Industrial beat and stuttering sounds surrounding a main theme and female wordless vocals. There are two tracks which best represent what is on offer for this release – 'Sam Bait' and 'Market Massacre'; they are certainly the most changeable and the closest to mini suites. The bottom line is that Beltrami and Trumpp have taken one for the team, foregoing a more contemporary and varied stance for a purposefully stereotypical sound which fits the period. The soundtrack is there primarily to support the film, and this achieves that in more ways than one.

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Ty Power