Known mostly for his work on the television show "Happy
Days" at the time, Beal took the opportunity to reintroduce the complex
orchestrations of the classic horror genre for
The Funhouse and
help establish a versatility that led him to become one of the kings of
movie trailer scoring in the decades to come (before libraries of
generic muck replaced original trailer music in the industry). Beal's
involvement with this specific sound continued with his subsequent work
for the mini-series adaptation of
Stephen King's It. With the
insistence by the filmmakers that a melodic orchestral score be applied,
Beal's return to traditional attention to high class details in
The
Funhouse makes it more timeless than the film could ever be. For the
largely symphonic result, the depth and range of the performing group is
surprisingly crisp, even with its somewhat advanced age. Aggressive in
his approach from the start to finish, Beal makes no attempt to hide the
element of suspense. After a wickedly striking opening cue, during which
an innocent flute is struck down by orchestral hits and violin slashing
of yesteryear, Beal continues to tighten the score's grip as it
progresses. That "Main Title" introduces the composer's main ideas for
the lead character and the carnival atmosphere, the same atonal chord
shifts applied to many of the thematic enunciations to follow. A
slightly waltz-like rhythm, always appropriate for a carnival
atmosphere, represents the setting and slowly churns in early cues,
eventually exploding with all of its ominous force when fully realized
in the final two cues. The depth of the string section in the recording
for
The Funhouse is a defining element, with lofty, full
performances of meandering, strangely melodic ideas weaving constantly
throughout. This section, as well as woodwinds and piano, convey the
rather lonely and cold character theme that meanders throughout the
score. A heightened sense of unique orchestration is also present, with
non-traditional instrumental sounds employed to tingle your nerves. A
slight electronic presence in the bass region is typical to the era,
employed as a live, fifth section of the orchestra but not relied
upon.
Beal's approach to
The Funhouse is edgy in his
eventually relentless rhythmic progressions, never hesitating to take
the opportunity to reach a cymbal-crashing crescendo when a monster is
sighted on screen. To that end, Beal's monster motif is supplied
liberally and with gusto. A few cliched slashes of strings owing form to
Bernard Herrmann are forgivable in
The Funhouse, as are some
standard shrieks from the woodwinds, because they are typically only one
layer of horror upon many that Beal constantly throws at the listener.
The thematic structures overall are rather unpleasantly dissonant and
not particularly memorable, though they are effective at their task, and
the score resists resorting to blatant carousel-inspired, organ-led
rhythms outside of the bookending cues and a few source pieces. The
propulsive nature of the music, along with its surprising size and sound
quality, make
The Funhouse a much better than average effort in
its genre and era. An intelligent mix and reasonably balanced
presentation on album will impress enthusiasts of Christopher Young and
Jerry Goldsmith's equivalent efforts of force, and the label that
brought so much of those composers' music to collectors was also
responsible for
The Funhouse. Intrada Records first released the
score as a promotional offering in 1998, but the label returned to the
work as a limited pressing in 2023. The original product featured a nice
merging of cues into longer tracks, whereas the expansion provides the
original cue formations and about five minutes of additional music from
the score proper. Beal recorded a variety of source cues for the picture
as well, ranging from contemporary pop music to extended calliope-style
ambience for the carnival; these are included on the longer album, along
with alternate takes that together append another 34 minutes of music to
the presentation. The condensed arrangements from the 1998 album are
arguably preferable, as the supplemental music dominating the 2023
product seems to slow the experience. Sound quality on the later product
is still restricted to largely the same archival quality as its
predecessor. Regardless, the label should be thanked for its loyalty to
preserving and remastering this nearly forgotten but refreshingly
dynamic horror score.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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