Aliens (1986) - Soundtrack

Although there had been talk and an intention of doing an Alien 2 as early as late 1979, when it was clear to the producers and distributors that Alien was a bona fide hit, seven years would pass before the long desired sequel managed to get made and released into movie theaters across the globe.

Despite there being both a different director (James Cameron) and composer (James Horner) this time around, it seems that history would repeat itself. As Horner's score would be truncated, rearranged, and even replaced in the final version. According to Nick Redman's detailed liner notes, "no cue, save for the Main and End Titles, are where they should be, and no cue (except for Bishop's Countdown) plays in its entirety as it was written." So it goes.

In an irony that I am sure neither James Horner or Jerry Goldsmith appreciated, two selections from Goldsmith's score for the original Alien were used in Aliens. Sleepy Alien and a snippet from Parker's Death.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #2

 

Alien (1979) - Soundtrack

1979 was the year that I "discovered" Jerry Goldsmith, because I got the soundtrack albums for both Alien and Star Trek The Motion Picture for Christmas. Up until then the only film composer's name that I was familiar with was John Williams, who had provided the memorable score for my favorite movie of all time, Jaws. More on that later...

As for my discovery of Goldsmith... 1979 would also be the year I figured out that there were people behind the camera responsible for creating and crafting the movies and television programs I was watching and, more often than not, enjoying. It was when I started to pay closer attention to all the names listed in both the opening and ending credits.

I had not seen Star Trek The Motion Picture, but was a big fan of the show, which is no doubt why my parents chose to give me that particular soundtrack album. Alien, however, had been one of the most impactful cinematic experiences of that year for me. (John Carpenter's Halloween would be the other one. But that is yet another subject for another post at another time...)

I do not know if it was on Christmas Day itself, but I do remember the jolt when I first noticed that the very different sounding scores for both Alien and Star Trek The Motion Picture had been composed by the very same man. Whoa.

Film editor Terry Rawlings temped his working cuts for Alien with as much of Goldsmith's past music he felt would communicate the kind of mood he and director Ridley Scott wanted for the film. The composer, who disliked temp tracks, did not appreciate Rawlings efforts. Goldsmith would also be infuriated and insulted at Rawlings and Scott's decision to retain the temp music for three sequences and the end titles in the finished film. Those three sequences utilized pieces taken from Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score for Freud (1962), while the end credits were accompanied by a section from Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2.

That is why the first time I listened to the Alien soundtrack, on that Christmas Day way, way back in 1979, hearing music that I did not recognize at all was a disconcerting and disappointing surprise.

12-year-old me was confounded and frustrated by all this unrecognizable music. Especially the Main Title. Where was the weird and haunting music that had played over the opening credits in the movie? I wanted to hear what had been in the movie. I did not know that this was the music Goldsmith had composed for the movie and, for a variety of reasons, had not been used.

Even though Goldsmith liked to grumble about his scores being collected as if they were bottle caps. About said collectors wanting each and every note of music, regardless of its quality or meaning. What he might not have realized, or understood, was how something he might have found unimportant, or unrepresentative of what he was doing with the score, could be very important to a listener, or fan, such as myself.

What imprinted on me was the Main Title used in the film. Which is included in this 2007 release from Intrada that contains every note Jerry Goldsmith composed for the film. 

While the film version's inclusion was appreciated by adult me, and would have been adored by 12-year-old me, I now understand Goldsmith's frustration with how his subtle approach to the opening of the film was dismissed and discarded. That he was made to do something obvious. In the liner notes Goldsmith laments, "The original one took me a day to write, and the alternate took me about five minutes."

Now that I have had the chance to listen to them side by side, adult me can hear the difference. There is real craft and passion in the original version, while the alternate is a professional, albeit passionless, work-for-hire piece.

Having each and every note can offer quite the education and I consider this 2-disc set to be one of the Crown Jewels of my soundtrack collection. 

Halloween (1978) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - November 15, 1978]

On October 25th my Facebook feed was peppered with posts celebrating the fact that John Carpenter's Halloween opened in theaters and drive-ins for the very first time on October 25, 1978. Because, more than likely, that is the earliest date that is listed on its IMDB page.

While this might be true, the number of theaters it played in was quite small. I was surprised to learn that Halloween never had a wide theatrical release. That it never played in more than 200 theaters at any given time. It would open in a market, play for a week or two, then move on to the next.

Which explains how and why Halloween first opened at a theater or drive-in near me on November 15, 1978. NOVEMBER!?! The celebration of Halloween would already have been a distant memory to 11-year-old me. My heart would be focused on Thanksgiving and, even better, Christmas.

So it should come as no surprise that I have no memory of this release, at all.

Halloween would first ping my blossoming horror geek radar when this issue of Newsweek arrived in the family mail.

Newsweek - June 18, 1979

This is where, buried amongst the coverage of the looming releases of Alien, Prophecy, and Dawn of the Dead, that I learned that a movie called Halloween existed. I am pretty sure that Phantasm, The Brood, and maybe even The Dark were also mentioned in the cover article.

Although the positive word of mouth of audiences, and the acclaim of critics, was beginning to grow around Halloween, the article's coverage was pretty basic. It stated that Halloween, a scary sleeper hit, would be getting another release in the fall and offered a single image from the film. That of a sheeted figure standing in a doorway. But it was enough to get me interested and excited about seeing this movie called Halloween.

7 Doors of Death [The Beyond (1981)] / Superstition (1982) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - November 14, 1985]

How on earth did I miss out on catching this banger of a "Cursed House" double feature? 

If I had gone to see this, then I would have been able to have seen at least one Lucio Fulci movie on the big screen. Granted, this would have been in a somewhat edited version, but still.  It would have been a Lucio Fulci movie, on the big screen. Come on.

Superstition is also a whole lot of fun and well worth checking out.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #4

The Blair Cult

A rare book entitled "The Blair Witch Cult" was published in 1809. It was a collection of almost incoherent ramblings purporting to tell the history of the Blair Witch, describing archaic, often bloody rituals, and assorted witchcraft experiences. The only remaining copy is currently in the library of the Maryland Historical Society.

Front: Objects displayed here were supposedly used by the Blair Witch cult in connection with the book.

Hey, what fabricated mythology would be complete without a rare book about it secreted somewhere safe from prying, curious eyes?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - November 11, 1984]

I was living overseas, in Hong Kong, when A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in the United States in November of 1984. So I have zero memories of it as a theatrical release or viewing experience. Never saw the poster hanging in a lobby, nor did I see any TV spots for it. Because I was not there. So it goes.

It was not until Fangoria's 43rd issue arrived in the mail and I read a letter in The Postal Zone that praised a film called A Nightmare on Elm Street for creating an ultimate boogeyman that I became aware of its existence. What was this movie with a villain the letter writer deemed capable of scaring Jason Voorhees himself?

This praise both intrigued me and made me anxious to see this "ultimate boogeyman" film. Which I was able to in, I believe, the Thanksgiving weekend of 1985. When I rented the movie on home video. It not only managed to scare the shit out of me, but it also kept me awake that night. As I was afraid to fall asleep.

Something that would not happen again until, 25 years later, an opening night viewing of Paranormal Activity rendered me too scared to sleep. Good times.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #1

Time: the future. Place: the commercial towing vehicle "Nostromo", a gigantic Mineral Ore Refinery being tugged across the galaxy. Its crew, five men, two women, and one cat, are deep in hyper-sleep...

While it might not seem as big a deal today, back in 1979 an R-rated, and quite gory, monster movie having a bunch of merchandise marketed toward children caused a small stir of controversy.

I do recall watching a segment of Sneak Previews wherein Gene Siskel took a moment to hold up one of Kenner's 18" Alien figures and rant about how vile it was for a toy company to make and sell something so inappropriate for children. 12-year-old me thought he was an overreacting, stick-in-the-mud jerk-face. That toy looked awesome and I wanted it, bad.

Yet who got it for Christmas that year? My younger brother. I got the soundtrack album, Heavy Metal's Alien: The Illustrated Story, and Richard J. Anobile's Alien: The Movie Novel. So it goes.

The Stand by Stephen King - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - November 5, 1978]

Having just read and reviewed a book about the 1918 influenza epic, why not share this newspaper ad hyping the release of Stephen King's End Times epic The Stand?

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, there was a lot of chatter and jokes about Captain Trips and such. There were even chain letter tweets sharing and spreading, back when there were tweets worth sharing and spreading, the eighth chapter of the novel, which charted the explosive spread of the super flu.

Further back in time, however, I struggled to get through the totality of The Stand. I could make it as far as the end of the plague, but would start to lose patience with the seeming meandering pace of this behemoth novel. Then again, I was all of eleven or twelve at that time and had the attention span of a gnat. So it goes.

I also remember being super disappointed to learn that the Star Wars invoking cover art, featuring a sword-wielding Luke Skywalker type fighting a scythe-wielding crow creature of some kind, did not happen in the book.

Although props should be given for that art, which does a great job of invoking the epic fantasy vibe of the work more so than the epic horror expectations this potential (and future constant) reader had in the early months of 1979.

Further props for it invoking both the grim reaper, via the scythe, and the plague, via that beaked countenance. I love it.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #3

Elly Kedward's Fate

In the winter of 1786, all of Elly Kedward's witchcraft accusers, along with half of Blair's children, mysteriously vanished. Fearing a curse, the townspeople fled Blair and vowed never to utter Elly Kedward's name again.

Front: An early woodcut depicting Kedward, bound on a wheelbarrow, banished to the freezing Black Woods.