Someone posted the opening titles to John Carpenter's new horror film, scored by Mark Kilian.
I dig it, but it makes me wonder what Carpenter himself would have composed. I miss his minimalistic masterpieces. Seems like horror scores these days are all over the place with trying to orchestrate every knife slash or punch or grab with bombastic cues or heavy guitars and drums. Carpenter knew that a cue didn't need to be ten feet thick to make the scene work.
Click below to watch: 
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Ward: Opening Titles
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6 comments:
If the official full trailer is any indication, the only "patients" of the ward are attractive eye-candy, twenty-something females... Sorry gang. Carpenter has mostly been a one (or two) trick pony for his career. Nothing in this trailer indicates that he has returned in any significant manner. As far as the opening credits score, I really like it. Sometimes, dark ambient can be TOO subtle. Some horror-movie scores (even for bad movies) can be great background music for Halloween parties.
Going to disagree with you on the trick pony comment. Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, The Fog, Assault on Precinct 13, and even Starman...difficult to dismiss that body of work.
I think the expectation for him to have remained a Giant in the film industry has really been unfair. His contributions to horror and film in general are going to be around long after his modern counterparts' efforts.
And, the eye-candy situation actually makes sense from a review I've read. But I'm going to give the film a chance before I rate it without seeing it.
I really like the look of the opening credits, love those spooky illustrations! I know what you mean about the music though. Carpenter would have made a simpler track that would have been just right, although this isn't too bad. Still it would be cool to see what he would have come up with.
Yeah. Something minimal. I found myself wondering what the opening titles track would have been like without the vocals.
Now that I read all the comments....I realize that I was not paying attention to what I should have been. Too distracted by the cool broken glass picture bit.....that is cool. Don't know what I am going to do with that in my head, but it did file itself in the creative side of my brain. We will see.
BTW - the Fog is one of my favorites. And watched Starman recently and realized what a great film that still is.
Cheers!
I really like the score and the visuals being presented. While I do prefer Carpenter's more minimalist scores for his films, I quite like the vocals on this one. It has a very rich, dark feel to it. I won't complain, but I do have to wonder at what could have been!
As for the statement "Anonymous" made, I don't think you can remotely call him a one (or even two) trick pony. Sure, some of his latter work is lacking, but getting past flicks like Vampires and Ghosts of Mars isn't all that difficult. He has one of the most impressive resumes in horror, PERIOD. The original Halloween alone is the type of classic that most filmmakers would love to have made, but when you add in all of the fantastic films he has helmed along with it...he has earned his reputation as a "Master of Horror".
I'll go one further, and argue that even some of his "lesser" fare, such as Prince of Darkness or In the Mouth of Madness are still better than most director's best stuff (and those movies improve with multiple viewings). Sure, he has a couple of turkeys, but that can be said of almost every director. Very few filmmmakers have such a varied slew of films, even when they are in the same genre.
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