Virtual Hangs: John Carpenter 'The Horror Master In The Flesh'

And now announcing something completely different, but not too far removed from our regular scheduled viewing—the horror master himself, John Carpenter, joins Wall of Sound Virtual Hangs.

The mastermind behind the killer franchise (pun intended) takes up a seat to chat with us about his involvement with the Halloween Ends soundtrack and film. It finds the Hollywood director/composer crafting haunting sounds that set the tone (and then some) for the final outing's key scenes, working alongside his son, Cody Carpenter, and godson, Daniel Davies.

The end result even manages to throwback to the original debut outing of Halloween (1978) by bringing key moments back to the big screen for modern cinema-goers in 2022. Learn more by watching the full interview, or read on as we dissect the best bits with the biggest name that has ever graced the pages of Wall of Sound...

Just reiterating again, this is John Freaking Carpenter!! To put this icon's accolades into perspective, one quick google search (for the ill-informed) will remind you of the legacy this man has behind him. Conceiving cult classic horror films—spanning well over 40+ years in the industry—such as The Thing, Christine, The Fog, Ghosts of Mars, They Live, Vampires, Prince of Darkness, Big Trouble In Little China, Escape from New York, and of course Halloween. Not only did John serve as director for the above-mentioned flicks, but he also scored and composed the majority of them, a talent dating back to his early years as a student filmmaker where (much like in this day and age) he tried his hand at everything in order to keep the costs down—more on that later.

"Well, you're talking about something that took place [40+ years ago]."

He then added that the arrangement was put into his head at a very young age after his father invested in one of his first musical instruments.

"Well, when I was 13 my father got me a pair of bongos [and] he taught me how to five-four time on the bongos. [John then proceeds to play the sound on imaginary bongos]. That's Halloween."

He admits he loves hearing new iterations that have surfaced throughout the years that the story has been told. A personal fave of mine is the rendition

One of the big drawcards for cine-buffs to check out the latest in the franchise is the fact that if you're listening close enough, you'll pick up on signature sounds and compositions that were first introduced in the 1978 debut.

John explains, "We took the original soundtrack from Halloween (1978) and I work with my son Cody, and my godson Daniel, and we took all the themes that I had done way back when and then we brought them into the modern age, adding new sounds to them [and] rearrange them in a different way, depending on what David Gordon Green [director] wanted. We sit down with him and we do spotting sessions and he tells us what he wants where, and what he's looking for in a scene, and that's what we try to provide."

"I was associate producer on this, so I did have input. But mainly I talked about the filmmaking of it. In other words, if a scene was slow, if there's too much of this, but I didn't get into his vision of Halloween, that was all his."

And now for the horror/thriller movie twist none of you saw coming...

Throughout my years working in the heavy music industry, I've comes across many musicians who share a similar passion for all things spooky/horror. One of which is The Ghost Inside drummer, Andrew Tkaczyk, who shared with me a while back his own horror pleasure room featuring lifesize Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees mannequins, limited edition Halloween masks, horror paraphernalia and many more goodies. See a sample of it for yourself below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bph2sBsngaH/

"Well that particular theme was something that I played on a piano and basically it was like an exercise. I limbered up my hands by playing that."

He then explains that back in the 70s, there weren't the kind of budgets you have with today's day and age movies, especially considering this was the first outing of

"I started scoring movies in film school because we were all broke. We didn't have any money. So I'd do the scores for my own student films and others. And then I just brought that into low-budget filmmaking. We didn't have any money, so I had to do the score for Halloween and I had three days to do it in." 

"I realised I have to do something simple here, plus I had minimal chops. So that was perfect. It was just the right theme for the right time for me."

It all goes to show what the power of dedication and ingenuity can accomplish with the end product resulting in a lasting legacy that has terrified and thrilled audiences for well over four decades... and no doubt many more to come.

on the

Halloween Ends – OST tracklisting

2. Halloween Ends (Main Title)

3. Laureis Theme Ends

4. The Cave

5. Drags To The Cave

6. Evil Eyes

7. Transformation

8. Because of You

9. Requiem For Jeremy

10. Kill The Cop

11. Corey and Michael

12. Corey’s Requiem

13. The Junk Yard

14. Where Are You?

15. Bye Bye Corey

16. The Fight

17. Before Her Eyes

18. The Procession

19. Cherry Blossoms

20. Halloween Ends (End Titles)