Here’s How Music for the New ‘Halloween’ Will Work

As iconic as any scene, performance, or as Michael Myers himself in the original Halloween is the film’s score, created by director/co-writer John Carpenter. The upcoming sequel will attempt to bring back the effectiveness of the original film, including Carpenter once again crafting the score. The sequel’s director, David Gordon Green, shared with ComicBook.com the process of blending the old with the new when it comes to sonic ambiance.

“It’s certainly the foundation of this movie, is John’s original theme. He’s composing the music with his son, Cody [Carpenter], and Daniel Davies, so the three of them are working together,” Green detailed. “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.”

Carpenter has worn many hats throughout the longevity of the franchise, though his last direct involvement with a sequel was composing the score for Halloween III: Season of the Witch with Alan Howarth. Subsequent films all used the iconic theme, with Carpenter merely taking obligatory credits for the following seven films.

While any horror fan can instantly sing the memorable theme, Carpenter crafted the famous theme in just an hour.

“Oh no, hell no, god no,” Carpenter said when asked if he scored Halloween to picture by Consequence of Sound. “For both Assault [on Precinct 13] and Halloween, I go into a studio and depending on how much time I had, I’d do several pieces. For Assault, I had a day; for Halloween, I had three days.”

In those three days, he managed to heighten the chilling atmosphere of his film with his musical contributions.

“Not the theme, the whole score [took three days],” he noted. “That theme was done in like an hour. We moved on.”

Having been absent from the series for decades, Carpenter returns to this upcoming sequel as an executive producer and composer. The filmmaker had a pretty straightforward answer as to why he decided to finally get back involved.

“I talked about the Halloweens for a long time, the sequels — I haven’t even seen all of them,” Carpenter admitted to Rotten Tomatoes. “I don’t even know what really was there — but finally it occurred to me: Well if I’m just flapping my gums here, talking about it, why don’t I try to make it as good as I can? I could offer advice. I could talk to the director. I like the director very much. I like the script. So, you know, stop throwing rocks from the sidelines and get in there and try to do something positive.”

Fans will hear the new score when Halloween hits theaters on October 19th.

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