And Happy Halloween!
Super
Terrifying Halloween Spectacular
Do you remember
when films relied entirely on music and used title cards instead of actual
dialogue??
Neither do
I…
In the early
days of motion pictures, the filmmakers relied heavily on the story line and
used title cards, which is almost unimaginable these days! 1922’s Nosferatu was a silent horror film that depicted
a Dracula type storyline and relied largely on the creepiness of the main
character’s appearance. There were no special effects, no color and no speaking!
But it relied heavily on a concept- a vampire who comes out of the darkness of
the night to suck the blood from innocents until they’re bone dry. It played
heavily on our fear of the dark & the unknown, and worked largely because,
audible effects were not available in the infancy of filmmaking. But it remains
a classic and if you see even a few minutes of this film- you will be creeped out!!
With
Halloween sweeping into our consciousness, I wondered if the concept would work
in reverse. What if a film depended
on music?
So listen to this tale of twisted fate, macabre horror and
unimaginable…. Just keep
reading, ok??
The 1978
horror masterpiece Halloween is
continually heralded as one of the landmarks of classic fright. Halloween created its own genre (‘Slasher’
flicks), while producing countless replicas—all looking to out muscle their
predecessors with ample nudity, gratuitous and bloody evisceration's and stupid
co-eds wandered into the dark looking for what made that ominous noise.
And now
you’re double-checking the web address to make sure this is indeed an online
bass guitar/music magazine and not www.fangoria.com. So here’s the hook…
The film Halloween was not an instant classic.
That’s a horrifying (and stupefying) thought. In fact; it benefited from “word
of mouth” and one simple but necessary adjustment to add excess amounts of
tension and dread to the audience experience: a musical soundtrack!
Director
John Carpenter initially sent the film out to critics as a way of perpetuating word
of mouth and building hype. That wasn’t what happened.
After sending out test ‘screeners’, Carpenter
realized what was causing disparaging reviews for his film- a film he was
convinced would be a success. So he added a simple and understated soundtrack
that helped the movie take off! You know the music as much as the film itself!!
The same reviewers,
who nixed the film initially, were now converted fans and Halloween would become a horror classic; finding its way in the
homes of every living person with a TV each October 31st.
Be very afraid of a giant pumpkin
yielding a knife!
Carpenter,
learning his lesson well from the 1978 outing, initiated an even simpler bass/cello-
driven soundtrack (provided by Ennio Morricone) with his 1982 gore
splatter-fest The Thing. The low E- pulsates
and keeps pace as the camera follows the listless crew-- the suffocating
atmosphere of the film and the subtle music score lends mounting tension with
surreal detail. No sci-fi/horror movie has so adequately incorporated the bass
with such overwhelming urgency, while remaining SO SIMPLE.
Yes, Seinfeld and Night Court did use the bass guitar in a notable way. But they were intros to TV shows, & no one’s head split in half at any point in time!!!
Coincidentally,
not all music of the modern era was written as a collection of random songs. Motion
pictures relied on audio for theatrics, but musicians could reference
historical events, literature and even film to create an experience. Listeners
could visualize the experience as well as submerse themselves in the
instrumentation and lyrics. In the case of some of our greatest conceptual rock
masterpieces- what if the idea for a whole cohesive recording never occurred to
anyone?
Do you even
remember popular music before The
Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band or Pink Floyd’s Darkside of the
Moon? For my fellow bassists—was there life before Rush’s 2112??
…I don’t
recall that much either.
The
life cycle of an idea that takes on a life of its own.
Think about this life cycle: a writer
can devise a fictitious tale based on the obsession to purge the sea and a pseudo-mythological
creature can be the antagonist (use your imagination), then a modern day rock
outfit can conceptualize the themes to music and real life becomes a wildly
popular prog/metal album!
Mastodon conceptualized an album based on a fictional tale about an
obsessed Captain and a seriously pissed off whale, which was actually based on
a real life voyage of a hapless crew and a seriously pissed off whale.
Besides, what could be more frightening
than the possibility of a real life monster- like a ten ton sperm whale??
Taking a concept and putting it to
music or providing a musical soundtrack for a motion picture is no ‘chicken or
the egg’ conversation. Both are vital elements to our modern world. Some of our
most potent artists have used themes and transposed amazing music to that
element, while some films have depended on music to possess their film. If
you’ve heard Alice Cooper’s - Welcome to
my Nightmare or seen The Shining
then you’re there with me.
Do you
remember an October without classic horror films being played almost
continuously on every channel??
Neither do I…
