John Carpenter Calls New ‘Halloween’ Score Better Than the Original

In addtion to co-writing and directing the original Halloween, John Carpenter also crafted the film’s score, a role which he also served on this year’s sequel to the original film. The filmmaker recently shared how the tools available to him on the new score were much more sophisticated than on the original, likely resulting in a superior product.

“Well, we started by getting the themes from the original movie and moving them into the computer,” Carpenter shared with Revolver of his process of crafting the new music. “Using new technology, we just brought them back to life — we put new life into it, really. The sounds that are available to us today, they’re just so much more modern and so much better than the original stuff. I mean, even the audio quality of the sound is improved.”

The success of the original score is in its simplicity, with Carpenter composing the soundtrack himself as a way of being more cost effective. With this new Halloween, Carpenter wasn’t necessarily aware of what director David Gordon Green had shot, inspiring a much more collaborative endeavor than scores for his previous films.

“The strategy of the soundtrack was I took my cues from the director, David Gordon Green, who in spotting sessions told me, “I want something here, I want something there,’” the filmmaker confirmed. “Cody [Carpenter] and Danny [Davies] and I were there to please him. So it’s a combination of the old music, refurbished and reinvented, and new music.”

At San Diego Comic-Con, Green detailed the process of finding the balance between honoring the soundtrack of the original film while also finding new sounds.

“It’s certainly the foundation of this movie, is John’s original theme. He’s composing the music with his son, Cody, and Daniel Davies, so the three of them are working together,” Green shared with ComicBook.com. “It’s fun to be able to say, ‘When do you want iconic and when do you want to be fresh and inventive?’ So that’s kind of the balance we’re exploring right now. Hopefully he’s doing that today.”

While some Carpenter fans might be disappointed that the filmmaker hasn’t directed a feature film in nearly a decade, the man himself is as busy as ever, having released multiple albums of original music and also embarking on world tours.

Audiences can hear the new Halloween score when the sequel hits theaters on October 19th.

Do you think the new score can top the original? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Revolver]