The Depths · All albums

Halloween (Original Soundtrack)

John Carpenter · 1978

• Scores: Noise 1, Unease 3, Complexity 1 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Electronic, Film score
• Mood: ominous, stalking, sparse
• Sound: 5/4 piano theme, analog synthesizers, minimal melodies, instrumental, repetition, film score

John Carpenter composed and performed the whole score in three days at Sound Arts Studio in Los Angeles in 1978, with Dan Wyman helping on synthesiser programming. With no orchestra, the music is a piano melody in a 10/8 or complex 5/4 time signature, played against synthesisers. The end credits list Carpenter as the Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra. He said it was inspired by Dario Argento's Suspiria and William Friedkin's The Exorcist, and it later influenced synthwave.

Track list

1. Halloween Theme – Main Title (2:54)
2. Laurie's Theme (2:05)
3. Shape Escapes (1:42)
4. Myers' House (5:35)
5. Michael Kills Judith (3:11)
6. Loomis and Shape's Car (3:32)
7. The Haunted House (3:33)
8. The Shape Lurks (1:35)
9. Laurie Knows (3:01)
10. Better Check the Kids (3:27)
11. The Shape Stalks (3:08)