Video Nasties, Part II

During the eighties, the British censor board was overly paranoid that little kiddies might have their brains horribly corrupted by violent slasher films or films containing Things Wrong - or grow up to be serial killers. Most of the millions who saw uncut versions of Evil Dead didn't become violent offenders (some are probably your bankers, dentists, and podiatrists), and hey, filmmakers like Raimi actually advanced the art of filmmaking.

Imagine that.

But in the eighties, the U.K.'s censor board would have none of it, so without specific cuts or being a work in whole of ill mental repute, a movie could remain in limbo while the board attempted to prosecute distributors for carrying Wrong Films.

Of the films in the original list, I've thus far reviewed three: Raimi's Evil Dead (released uncut in the U.K. 20 years after its original theatrical release); Abel Ferrara's bonkers Driller Killer (released uncut 23 years after its theatrical run); and Meir Zarchi's ugly I Spit on Your Grave (reased with edits 23 years after its release).

Those constitute the unofficial Part I entries in my nasty tally on home video, and now comes Part II: Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpetnter's The Dorm That Dripped Blood [M], available in an uncut edition apparenty no one's seen since its' U.S. theatrical release.

Two things tied me to the film prior to learning it was a nasty: under the title Pranks, it was one of the first Christopher Young soundtrack LPs I ever bought, and I've waited about 20 years to see where the image of a boiled human head fits into the narrative.

Did the film live up to its reputation? Is Synapse's Blu-ray transfer so good you can smell fresh coed soup? Was Christopher Young a scoring genius from the get-go?

Read the review.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Soundtrack Awards & Reviews

This past weekend yielded two awards shows, with the BAFTA’s Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music going to The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat), beating out 127 Hours (A.R. Rahman), Alice in Wonderland (Danny Elfman), How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell), and Inception [M] (Hans Zimmer).

In the Grammy Awards, the golden trophy for Best Score Soundtrack Album went to Toy Story 3 (Randy Newman), beating out Alice in Wonderland (Danny Elfman), Avatar (James Horner), Inception (Hans Zimmer), and Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer). The music related categories are available HERE, as well as the full tally of winners.

Just uploaded is a quartet of soundtrack reviews:

Cliff Martinez’ Solaris [M] (La-La Land Records) is a work of art, and I’m not the only one who’s spun the album repeatedly because of its hypnotic and often soothing quality. It’s riveting & mournful, and the composer’s finest work, after Traffic. He’s reportedly reteamed again with director Steven Soderbergh for the upcoming virus thriller Contagion.

Murray Gold’s epic Doctor Who music continues to get the deluxe 2-CD treatment, and fans of Series 5 [M] will enjoy the rich variety of material in Silva Screen’s new set.

Also from La-La Land comes an expanded release of Christopher Young’s Haunted Summer [M] for forgotten director Ivan Passer, and John Morris’ shockingly good music for Gene Wilder’s unfunny Haunted Honeymoon [M].







Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Christopher Young Talks Psycho

No, no, no. Esteemed composer Christopher Young hasn’t experienced a psychotic snap. He talks about Psycho. No idea where you got such a silly idea.

The final slice of Rue Morgue’s 3-part Q&A with composers well-versed in the nuances of horror film scoring is up & running, and it’s the transcript of my discussion with Young based around 3 questions.
What I love about Young is that he’s a film music fan, an educator, a passionate artist, and gracious about his own work. If I had to be stuck on an island and could only choose music by 5 composers, my picks would 99.9%  be Young, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Oliver Nelson, and Hugo Friedhofer.

Which Young scores I’d take is a different matter, but they would have to include his horror work, as well as Jennifer 8, Copycat, and Hider in the House, because they’re marinated in pure melancholy. (Hider is a gem, and I don’t’ want to see the film because my own mind has conjured a drama more vivid than the cinematic tale of Gary Busey playing a sleazy Bad Ronald.)

Also of note is a post-Halloween treat (thanks, Pete!) originally spotted by io8.com, where you too can listen to a special mix of themes from John Carpenter films. The hour-long program was created by former Carpenter ‘associate’ and co-composer Alan Howarth for Resident Advisor.

I’ll have a list of sampled films in the next blog. The downloadable file is worth checking out for music written when Carpenter’s film output was far more creative and fun than his weak TV (Pro Life) and rare film work of late.

Lastly, Tadlow Music, who brought us crisp digital re-recordings of the full scores to Mikos Rozsa’s El Cid (later reissued via Silva Screen), and more recently Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia, have announced their 2-CD set for Basil Poledouris’ Conan the Barbarian. The label has posted a YouTube video of a snippet from the recording session to tease us before the set is released, uhm, today!         

Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com

The Lighter Side of Christopher Young, and the music of Metropolis and IMAX films

Just uploaded are a pair of reviews for two Christopher Young soundtracks: Love Happens (La-La Land Records) has the veteran composer and avid practitioner of musique concrete, avant garde and modern classical techniques writing a romantic drama score (and it works!), whereas Creation (U.K.: Silva Screen, U.S.: Lakeshore Records) is a character study that inspired Young to write one of his best scores in years – light, dreamy, and proof-positive Young is the King of Melancholia.

Also of note to IMAX and soundtrack fans is a fairly new site (www.imaxmusic.net) with a mandate to catalogue and identify IMAX scores and their commercial availability.

Lastly, fans of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis may be aware of the film’s latest round of restoration work after rare footage from a longer print surfaced in Argentina. The attempt to recreate Lang’s original theatrical cut premiered in Germany, and a blurb about the event was reported at DVD Savant (see entry for Jan. 14/10).

More intriguing for fans of the autocratic Lang as well as the film’s original composer, Gottfried Huppertz, are two recordings from 1927 that the Deutsche Kinemathek made available as playable and downloadable MP3 recordings. Seite einz features Lang discussing the film’s music in German, and Seite zwei features a suite of thematic material culled from Huppertz’ score.

While most will find the archival audio fascinating, I’m rather drawn to the striking label art that features a Cubist-styled crooner (or a minimalist design of an unfortunate musician captured in a death pose as a nuclear bomb blew out his eyes, electrified the hair, and extended the lips as the singer saw the dirty cloud, and uttered the sentence ‘Ach, was eine schweinerei!’).

Or something like that.

This blog marks the end of March, as well as the last chance Mother Nature had to smite Toronto with one last snowstorm. However, a final chill on T.O. actually came from the provincial budget which freezes the much-needed public transportation plan for an undetermined period, so I guess we did get hit with one big storm after all.

Brrr…

- MRH