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Another quartet of soundtrack reviews are up including Andrew Hewitt’s Submarine [M] (MovieScore Media), a film just released in Canadian theatres; Martin Phipps’ wonderful Brighton Rock [M] (Silva Screen Records), come soon to home video in England; Marco Beltrami’s Scream 4 [M] (Varese Sarabande); and Darren Callahan’s second score for a non-existent film, Alien Terrain [M] (Phantom Soundtracks).

Hewitt’s score is quite sparse (due in large part to the film’s heavy song content), but MSM’s decision to release the score digitally is a good move towards demonstrating brief soundtracks deserving some commercial release – with digital being the most widespread and cost-effective.

Phipps’ music for Brighton Rock is one of the most refreshing scores in years, and while the movie hasn’t gotten effusive reviews, the score deserves a generous nod. Gorgeous chorals and an addictive, simple little vocal theme that doesn’t leave the head for days. When the film makes its U.K. home video debut at the end of June, I’ll have a review of the original 1947 film, which remains unavailable in Region 1 land due to utter neglect. It’s a fine early work by a young (and non-balding) Richard Attenborough as Graham Greene’s famous child-thug, and features one of the emotionally cruelest endings ever.

Scream 4 may not have been a necessary film (no one seemed to care during its theatrical run, but many franchise efforts are made for home video and ancillary markets, so it doesn’t really matter in the long run), but the release of a score and song album certain rekindled an interest in the original Scream (1996) score. Yes, the first film, which brought Beltrami into the spotlight as a new talent to watch. Varese’s CD Club has issued the score – complete – as a limited CD (2000 copies) – so the wait is over.

One can presumably toss away the bootlegs that emerged when it was clear no one was willing top spend the cash to issue a score-only CD, but the 15 year wait is finally over. Seriously. FIFTEEN YEARS for the music from a contemporary horror film, acknowledged by most critics as a modern classic soon after its theatrical release, to get its proper CD release. ‘Bout bloody time. Watch for my review in Rue Morgue Magazine.

Alien Terrain as a film only exists in the head of composer Darren Callahan, but it’s such a well-crafted score that one can easily imagine characters, situations, and conflicts (though the track titles help make things a bit more precise). Like Spikes [M] (2010), it’s music inspired by a idea rather than an actual film, and it works beautifully, evoking vintage primordial synth gear.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

The unfortunate cancellation of a press screening for 2001: A Space Odyssey was kind of a bummer this morning – I’ll catch it later this month at the TIFF Bell Lighbox for an upcoming Editor’s Blog – but the sudden free time allowed me to move on with other important stuff.

First up are a series of horror score reviews, starting with Supernatural: Seasons 1-5 [M] (2005-2010). Water Tower Music released a solid album of lengthy theme suites composed by Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz, and the album is available as an Amazon on-demand CDR release.

There’s also Midnight Movie [M] (Howlin’ Wolf Records), with Penka Kouneva music for the 2008 slasher that featured a film-within-a-film storyline; and Spikes [M] (Phantom Records), a 2010 conceptual project by Darren Callahan that’s essentially a soundtrack written for a non-existent film.

Slashers, it seems, have left an indelible impression on horror fans, and there’s something weirdly soothing about analogue synth music (done well) that evokes the video nasties that made BBFC officials micturate in their knickers, had Ontario’s vile Mary Brown instinctively reach for her foot-long censorship scissors, and teased the interest of fresh-faced teens in local rental shops with VHS and Beta tapes sporting grotesquely violent cover art. That’s essentially what Spikes does for the listener.

I’d love to include 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (BSX Records) in the review roundup, but there’s roughly 20 mins. of Patrick Copeland’s original score on the concept CD - a mélange of songs and numerous dialogue snippets. The somewhat orchestral score’s jarringly different from the rock source songs, and Copeland’s music captures the baroque, satirical mood the filmmakers probably aimed to recreate in their remake/revisitation of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ original 1964 gorefest. Kudos for the great arrangement of Lewis’ hillbilly ode, “The South’s Gonna Rise Again,” but in terms of a full instrumental album, it’s a disappointment.

The next set of horror score reviews will be augmented with an interview with composer Jeff Grace, done around the time of the DVD releases of I Sell the Dead (2008) and House of the Devil (2009) – the former a mordant character piece on blue-collar gravediggers, and the latter a near-perfect tribute to Italian slashers shot in middle America.

Also up very soon is a review of The Grey Fox (1982), and an Editor’s Blog on its screening last night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The blog will have some reflections on the screening, the concluding Q&A, and since the audio was way cleaner, audio snippets from the discussion.

Unsurprisingly, the first question to be answered was ‘When will this unavailable film finally get its DVD release?’ The answer was a likely 2011, but it’s not guaranteed. The audio excerpts will provide some angles on why Grey Fox is illustrative of this frustrating dilemma where a whole 15-20 chunk of our film history (sublime, good, and awful) remains unavailable on DVD.

Except in Spain, because as well all know by now, Spain has the world’s largest video archive of classic and rare films no one is able to release on DVD in their own native country. From RKO classics to Fox CinemaScope beauties, they have it, and both myself and a friend believe this magical store is nine blocks long, three stories above and below street level, and may be the only place where film fans will be able to buy hardcopies of their favourite classics when the bulk of major American studios abandon physical film releases in favour of downloads and HD channels.

I wonder if the then-unemployed film historians will flock to Spain to do commentaries and extras. The weather’s good, the food quite nice, the wine is rich and fruity, and they have this great almond biscotti-like cookie that goes great with coffee.

Los Foxalinas Greyalis con Canadiena il bideo? Si-si, seignor!

Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com