The Beast Within (1982) - Soundtrack

The liner notes for this Intrada release describe Les Baxter's score for The Beast Within as being "doom-laden" and awash with "darkly percussive effects, lurching orchestral movements and buzzing electronic atmospheres..."

What I did not know, at time of purchase, was that Baxter's rousing main and end title music had been discarded and replaced with a section that underplayed the film's iconic transformation scene. It seems the studio did not think Baxter's grand and tragic approach was unnerving enough.

Same thing that happened to Jerry Goldsmith and his original main and end title music for Alien (1979).

Douglass Fake, Intrada founder and album producer, who passed in 2024, noted that Baxter's unused titles were "the most tonal and harmonically accessible cues" of a score that was "scary, angry, [and] intense." All true.

This is almost a full hour of dark, intense, and bone rattling music that only Les Baxter could compose. It is a cherished part of my soundtrack collection.