PRANKS

Original soundtrack from Jeffrey Obrow/Stephen Carpenter horror movie with Laurie Lapinski, Daphne Zuniga. As original LP for PRANKS on Citadel label debuts in early eighties, movie title becomes THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. Either way, project ushers in important new voice for genre film scoring in eighties. Christopher Young avoids then-standard color palette of low-budget horror film music (synthesizers), writes for strings, percussion, twin pianos, bass harmonica. With Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith as role models, Young creates complex music using instruments and playing techniques with equal abandon. Interestingly, though dissonance plays major role, composer gains tension not through atonality but with tonal writing using close harmonies, melodic ideas moving in half-steps, glissandos, trills, other effects. Result is unusual combination of skillful, time-honored writing for strings with tour-de-force use of struck and hammered percussion (bells, chimes, blocks, piano, xylophone, tympani, so forth). As with original LP, mostly mono mix no doubt hides some impact but composer's gifted feel for orchestration very much in evidence. Paul Francis Witt conducts. Limited edition release of 1500 copies.

1. Main Title
2. Someone's In The Kitchen
3. Trapped
4. Nightwalk
5. Who's On The Roof?
6. Surprise
7. The Phone's Dead
8. The Sacrifice
9. The Last Chance
10. Farewell To Brian
11. Moonchill
12. No Escape
13. Her Man Awaits
14. Bill's Piece Of Mind
15. A Little Prank /Kiss And Kill
16. Search For Hemmit
17. End Title