Zanobard Reviews

John Carpenter ups the stylistic ante with his chilling score for Halloween Kills, as ghostly choir joins the iconic piano & synth soundscape for the malevolent Michael Myers to make some delightfully eerie setpieces and – for me – the strongest take on the Halloween theme to date.

Another year, another Halloween soundtrack review! This time it’s for Halloween Kills, the 2021 sequel to the 2018 Halloween, which is itself a legacy sequel to the original 1978 Halloween (perfectly not confusing, right?). Anyway, happily the score for Kills is also composed by the legendary John Carpenter, and he has a brand new stylistic tool for the job this time around (alongside his classic synth and piano combo that we all know and love); choir. Indeed, this rather ghostly new addition to the music of Michael Myers is a curious one, and I’m pleased to say that it works tremendously in not only setting Kills apart in the Halloween soundtrack series, but also making it a really enjoyable album (featuring my absolute favourite rendition of the classic theme too , but we’ll get to that later). Before said choir appears however, this sequel score opens with “Logos Kill”; foreboding, deeply-pitched synth is centre stage here, with a higher-pitched overlay giving off an intensely ominous vibe throughout the cue’s eighty second runtime. “Main Title” then reprises the iconic piano motif for Halloween, and also debuts the aforementioned choral sound; echoing eerily alongside the piano throughout the track, it really is the perfect addition to the already impeccably creepy sound for Myers, and the album is only just getting started.

Up next, “The Myers House” harkens back to some of the more eerie synth aesthetic of Carpenter’s original 1978 score, with the subsequent “First Attack” then continuing along similar lines with a tense reprisal of the one-note-two-note Myers Chase motif on increasingly aggressive stabs of electronics. A slow, almost regretful rendition of the Halloween theme then echoes on forlorn piano for the first half of “Stand Off”, before the solemnity fades for a tenser back half as Laurie’s theme from the original film returns on moodily plodding synth. After coldly echoing electronics set a chilling atmosphere through the minute-long “Let It Burn”, a dramatically determined Halloween theme strides through on aggressively hammering piano and synth in “He Appears”, with “From The Fire” then taking this new instrumental aggression and running with it as deep, foreboding electronics and electric guitar face off against the ever-ticking percussive undercurrent of the iconic title theme. High-pitched, unsettling synth is then the stylistic focus of “Strodes At The Hospital”, with a curiously restrained piano rendition of the Myers Hunting motif from the 2018 Halloween soundtrack simmering ominously alongside.

A sudden crash of electronics opens “Cruel Intentions”, with unnerving percussion and stabs of synth then tracking the murderous march of Michael Myers through the rest of this action segment. Plodding percussion then overtakes for “Gather The Mob” with a low-pitched atmospheric undercurrent echoing throughout, before the pace starts to quicken for the angrier “Rampage”; here moody electronic thuds rapidly build to malevolent stabs, with a similarly ominous electric guitar and coldly echoing vocals also helping to dial up the tension until the unnerving instrumental combination starts to fade from the three minute mark. After a rather sorrowful piano-focused lament in “Frank And Laurie”, action retakes the compositional reigns as “Hallway Madness” growls with eerily low-pitched electric guitar and increasingly aggressive bursts of synth. Seven minute setpiece “It Needs To Die” then opens with a rather restrained march of the Myers Chase motif from ’78 before quieting with solemn strings and piano. It isn’t long though before tension starts to return, slowly building in both volume and intensity until reaching nearly deafening levels at just after the five minute point. From here a great sense of loss and sorrow overtakes the music, with a deeply heartfelt rendition of the Myers Hunting motif – now more of a theme for the Strodes themselves – plinking through on sombre piano.

Unsettling synthy ambience occupies much of “Reflection” together with intermittent echoes of the Halloween theme on floating piano, before “Unkillable” then leaps straight back into aggressive action territory with high-pitched bursts of terrified piano, dramatic shrieks of electronics and electric guitar, and a villainous Myers Chase motif uncurrent. Piano-focused determination however then gains the upper hand at the start of “Payback”, with the ghostly vocals from earlier reprising alongside to take a stand against the mythical Michael. This doesn’t last for long though, as the now restoredly aggressive Myers Hunting motif surges back into centre stage on malevolent synth in the back half. After a rather serene piano take on the main Halloween theme in “Michael’s Legend”, final and Standout Cue “End Titles” ends the score with a bang in what is my personal favourite rendition of the title theme; thudding electronics and swirling piano notes unveil a rapidly determined reprisal in the first minute, before the ominous choral work of earlier then returns one last time to join forces with Myer’s iconic sound, providing the piece of stylistic terror you didn’t know was missing and completing an absolute masterclass of a take on the iconic theme.

Overall, John Carpenter’s score for Halloween Kills is a decent entry in the title franchise, and it brings something stylistically new to the table to boot. There’s a lot to enjoy, with Carpenter reprising the iconic synth and piano-led Halloween sound and theme in spades alongside his many eerie motifs for the actions of Michael Myers from the original 1978 film, and the excellent new ‘Myers Hunting’ motif from the 2018 movie too. The new stylistic addition too is some particularly ghostly choir and its a small but so impeccable change, really feeling like the cherry on top of the cake with the title theme. The grandly malevolent rendition of it through Standout Cue “End Titles” with that elegant choir in centre stage is genuinely perfect, and is my favourite rendition of the chilling Halloween theme as a result. That combined with some entertaining new setpieces like the tensely action-centric “Payback” (which makes exquisite use of the Myers Hunting motif) as well as the ferocious “Unkillable” makes this album well worth a listen, though I will say – despite the phenomenal new choir – that the 2018 Halloween score is still superior, for me anyway. There’s just… more to enjoy with that one, it feels more cohesive and consistent as an album, versus Kills which has strong moments but less of an engaging whole.

Still, that End Title cue. *Chefs kiss*.

Score: 7.5/10

Standout Cues: Payback, Halloween Kills (End Titles)

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