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‘Halloween’ Soundtrack: John Carpenter’s New Score Nods to His Horror Classic and Teases ‘The Shape Returns’ — Listen

Michael Myers is back, and he's got a reworked jam to prove it.
"Halloween"
"Halloween"
Universal

When original “Halloween” director offered remake director David Gordon Green some advice for his new spin on the classic horror film, he encouraged just one thing: for Green to “keep it simple.” A similar ethos is echoed in Carpenter’s own score for the film, which he crafted alongside his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies. It’s Carpenter’s first venture into the movie music world since 2001, and it adds a distinct edge to the Jamie Lee Curtis-starring sequel, and now fans can get an early listen at it.

The first track from the new soundtrack, titled “The Shape Returns,” is now available in its entirety. Like Carpenter’s own advice, it’s relatively simple, though it harkens back to the original “Halloween” theme, gussied up with some scary piano and terrifying synth (no, really).

After this year’s TIFF Midnight Madness world premiere of the film, Green was asked if Carpenter was heavily involved with the shaping of the film’s sound design, and he said, “He had a lot of ideas of when to begin music [in the film], and sometimes we would audition a piece of music, and he’d be like, ‘You know what? Let’s scrap it and play nothing.’ He has a lot of theories about when to cue music, not to anticipate too much, but to be there to deliver on the nose.”

He added, “We would do Skype sessions every week, and he’d be watching a scene, I’d be looking at the back of his head as he’d be commentating and conducting. It was a really trippy, amazing experience to be able to collaborate with one of my idols growing up [on[ a lot of ideas from the script stage through the sound design.”

Universal Pictures will release “Halloween” on October 19, the same day the soundtrack hits stores. Listen to the first track below.

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