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Composed, Conducted, Orchestrated, and Produced by:
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Christopher Gordon
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Performed by:
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Pro Musica Sydney
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Release Date:
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September 11th, 2001
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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When Good Ghouls Go Bad: (Christopher Gordon) Launched on VHS and DVD six
weeks prior by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, When Good Ghouls Go
Bad is a Fox made-for-TV kid's film set to air on the cable network Fox
Family Channel during their annual Halloween programming festival. The kid at
the center of the story, Danny, has just moved to a new town, and he is
horrified to learn that thanks to a curse, nobody is allowed to celebrate
Halloween. Danny teams up with his recently departed Uncle Fred (as performed by
the always entertaining Christopher Lloyd, appearing as the only substantial
name in the production, and a rarity for Fox Family films) to drive away the
ghosts responsible. As to be expected, the movie is a light combination of
horror and humor, with designs for an audience similar to Monkeybone or
the more popular Nightmare Before Christmas. With the production of the
film located in Australia, veteran television composer Christopher Gordon was
hired to conduct a performing group known as "Pro Musica Sydney" (of which I
have honestly never heard). Gordon's large-scale scores for Hallmark's
television films Moby Dick and On the Beach since 1998 have both
received critical acclaim, and both were released on album by the same record
label as this score.
The Halloween spoof When Good Ghouls Go Bad, however, is a score along
completely different lines. For one, its appearance on album allows listeners to
hear a composition of his that wasn't meant for a film that contains a gloomy
and disasterous conclusion. It also allowed Gordon to exhibit more of talents in
wacky instrumentation and tender themes. To say that this score is a cross
between Moby Dick and The Nightmare Before Christmas wouldn't be
too far off. Gordon maintains a consistent level of orchestral and thematic
integrity throughout all of his works. The lengthy finale track (extending
beyond ten minutes in length) is rich with texture and theme, though a keen film
music ear will hear substantial similarities between his secondary character
theme and Mark McKenzie's sung theme for Dragonheart II: A New Beginning.
The mass majority of When Good Ghouls Go Bad is less slapstick in nature
(for its subject) and more fine tuned towards a serious underscore. Even during
its lighter moments, Gordon's work never dissolves into the kind of haphazard
comedy music that, say, Danny Elfman can create. For the Halloween spirit,
Gordon employs a significant emphasis on woodwind creepiness, with quivering
strings and brass overlays that will often remind the listener of Bernard
Herrmann's Cape Fear title theme or the Vertigo spinning motifs.
At no point does Gordon's work become overbearingly scary, though, which is
understandable given the genre, but somewhat disappointing on album.
There are two tracks that stand out as obvious carnival pieces, as they are
sometime referred to. Upon listening to the first and eleventh tracks, one might
believe that the film makers were attempting to throw in some claymation
zaniness into the mix. The first track is an unbashful manipulation of the "This
is Halloween" song from The Nightmare Before Christmas, complete with
screams and a plentitude of manipulated voices. It's difficult to tell why the
opening piece exists in the context of the score, because the two styles really
never mesh as well as Elfman accomplished. As it appears on album, the opening
song stands out like a sore thumb in contrast to the mass of Gordon's serious
underscore. Not entirely without humor is Gordon, though... His blatant
adaptations of Bach and Tell in two of his cues are playfully interpreted and
acknowledged (or apologized for) right in the track titles. The primary negative
working against this generous album of music from the film is Gordon's seeming
lack of diversity in instrumentation or sound effects for a project that could
have really used them. There is no percussion worth speaking of, no crafty use
of voices, and nothing else that you would typically use to identify a score of
Halloween origins. Overall, the score has fifteen or minutes of strong thematic
underscore, with no outbursts of theme or noise worth speaking of, and much of
it will pass over your speakers without much to be spooked or excited about. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. It's Mean, Mean, Mean (1:16)
• 2. Walker Walks and Falls in Walker Falls (3:29)
• 3. Art Class (5:10)
• 4. Uncle Fred (1:43)
• 5. Spooktacular (1:13)
• 6. A Pile of Pumpkins (3:26)
• 7. A Cheery Thought (1:28)
• 8. Curtis Danko's House (5:12)
• 9. Uncle Fred Returns (2:12)
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• 10. Hand About (1:15)
• 11. Hand's Down Polka (1:50)
• 12. Halloween (0:45)
• 13. Father Son (1:42)
• 14. The Walking Dead of Walker Falls (3:49)
• 15. Curtis Danko (6:02)
• 16. The Statue & The Dance of the Ghouls (10:36)
• 17. Trick or Treat (1:56)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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