 |
| Carpenter |
Halloween Ends: (John Carpenter/Various) After
countless redundant films since 1978, the
Halloween franchise
teased audiences with the notion that 2022's
Halloween Ends may
actually be the cinematic conclusion of the seemingly endless storyline.
Meant as the final entry in the trilogy of 2018's
Halloween and
2021's
Halloween Kills, this poorly-received culmination again
assumes connections to only its two predecessors and the original 1978
film, the franchise continuing to abandon all other sequels and reboots
from its past. There is some satisfaction in witnessing the revelation
of the original 1978 characters' fates, but the plot of
Halloween
Ends is badly warped by commentary about teen bullying. The focus of
the story shifts to a young man, Corey, who dates Laurie Strode's
granddaughter and is bullied sufficiently to become something of an
apprentice killer to the "shape," Michael Myers. It's a dangerous
message about murdering classmates and their families, but Myers himself
eventually retakes the spotlight. Regardless, it's Jamie Lee Curtis in a
slasher movie, and that's all that matters, especially by the time
police confirm their ineptitude and support of vigilante killing as
Myers is taken by a procession of angry Haddonfield residents to an
industrial shredder for supposedly permanent disposal. Still, some
satisfaction has resulted for enthusiasts of the concept since director,
writer, and composer John Carpenter returned to the franchise with this
2018 trilogy, and in no part of the production is his work more
impactful than the music. For these three scores, Carpenter was joined
by his son, Cody Carpenter, and rock-musician godson, Daniel Davies.
Director David Gordon Green had encouraged the trio to take a more
modernized approach to their classic 1978
Halloween music for the
emphasized action mode of
Halloween Kills, with limited artistic
success. That score was largely boring and disengaged as the composers
struggled to find a new direction for their tone. For
Halloween
Ends, though, that equation skews over to the dramatic, the story not
only exploring a touch of romance but providing some psychological
backstory to Corey that helps explain Myers' motivations without ever
needing to explicitly state them. This direction seems to have inspired
better ideas from Carpenter and his team, as the end result is a
rewarding, albeit somewhat conservative coda to the franchise's
music.
In its attempts to address a deeper story, the score
for
Halloween Ends is a bit more tonally inclined, though a
re-worked 1980's song, "Burn it Down," by the electronic music group Boy
Harsher was applied as something of a love theme for the younger couple.
Despite reports to the contrary, the material in this song is not used
obviously in the score and is instead applied as a song placement. It's
a good match stylistically with Carpenter's sound, however, so casual
listeners won't notice much disparity. More so than the previous entries
in this trilogy, Carpenter and his team attempted to develop new
thematic material to account for fresh main characters and situations,
supplementing the three surviving 1978 themes with new, complimentary
alternatives. Whereas
Halloween Kills proved to be extremely dull
in its failure to extend the motifs in new directions,
Halloween
Ends doesn't make the same mistake. That said, the debuting themes
range from decently smart to incomprehensible, so their use as narrative
definitions is somewhat haphazard. The instrumentation remains the same
as well, the mixture of vintage analog equipment and modern synthetics
mingling with a few live performers, mainly piano and electric guitar,
to supply an extremely familiar atmosphere to all of the work. The
quality of the recording, executed entirely at Carpenter and Davies'
home studios, is a little crisper in the impressive, Blaster Beam-like
bass contributions. The general tone is a little better developed here,
too, the dramatic element allowing the keyboarding to present motific
and rhythmic devices with more interesting and engaging reach at times.
The outright obnoxious looped elements heard in
Halloween Kills
are largely abandoned, the techniques in supplying propulsion to this
sequel more accessible in even the terrifying sequences. Enthusiasts of
thematic continuity will be pleased by Carpenter's liberal spotting of
the main theme and its popular, underlying 5/4 rhythm. Heard in suite
form in all of "Halloween Ends (Main Title)" and "Halloween Ends" (the
latter concluding on an unfinished phrase), the idea extends in its
rhythm to a subtle reminder in "The Cave" on piano and a variant on
synthetics that offers suspense in "Cool Kid." The full rhythm and theme
emerge menacingly in "Kill the Cop" and are relegated to counterpoint to
Corey's theme in "Corey and Michael" and "The Junk Yard," but they make
a splash at the end of the film, taking a brutal stance early in "The
Fight" over an extended period (a very well done performance) and the
rhythm and theme exploding at the outset of "Before Her Eyes."
The other two returning themes in
Halloween Ends
are the thumping stalking motif and Laurie Strode's theme. The former
growls in the latter half of "Where is Jeremy?" and opens "The Fight" on
metallics under the main theme but is otherwise diminished. Carpenter
opts to retire Laurie's original theme after a token statement at the
outset of "Laurie's Theme Ends," where it is starkly and abruptly
stricken. Rather, he offers her a new piano theme in the latter half of
the cue that is more compelling and tonally warm. Consisting of
four-note phrases when intact, this idea has some humorously
coincidental overlap with Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," and it
occupies all of "Cherry Blossoms" on vaguely hazy synths, battered in
tone. The electronic ambience of this keyboarding sounds off emotionally
in the closing cue, presenting little resolve or solace. The primary new
theme of the score exists for Corey, and it aligns closely with the main
rhythmic motif of the franchise as appropriate. Its menacing coolness
late in "Evil Eyes" returns in the middle of "Transformation" on piano
with a tone of insistent insanity. It directly follows the main theme at
the height of "Kill the Cop" and opens "Corey and Michael" with angry
force, but it disappears in favor of the main theme thereafter. When it
exists, though, the Corey theme's interplay with the main theme is quite
strong. Mushier is the pair of requiems for the Corey and Jeremy
characters, the former using same techniques as Corey's theme but with
different progressions and descending rhythmic figures dominating. This
material debuts on piano over striking bass synth late in "Requiem For
Jeremy," continues development without the piano and in more
contemplative measures throughout "Corey's Requiem," and becomes
aggressive with electric guitar in "The Junk Yard." Its influence on the
critical climatic cues isn't clear enough to truly suffice, turning
quasi-romantic on rambling piano later in "Before Her Eyes" and shifting
to an ascendant anthem in "The Procession" with its thumping metal bass
intact. Even with these sloppy attributions in the latter half of the
score, the attitude of the whole is improved from the preceding score,
and the main theme's references are nicely handled. The closing
"Halloween Ends" doesn't take the opportunity to present other themes in
suite format, and these scores continue to struggle to really force
ideas into conflict with each other. But the mingling of the main theme
and Corey's material in the first half is a solid step in that direction
and will provide more interesting intellectual depth to an otherwise
comfortable and established sound. Released on album by Carpenter's own
label, Sacred Bones, physical vinyl and CD options followed the digital
offering by a few months. Expect a decent farewell for an iconic theme.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
