AMG Review of Halloween [2007 Original Soundtrack]

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

The soundtrack for Rob Zombie's remake of the iconic horror classic #Halloween salvages only original director/composer John Carpenter's instantly recognizable piano motif before dropping a stack of quarters into a ghoulish late-'70s jukebox that's as genuinely fun as it is macabre. Cryptic dialogue from the film (think #Pulp Fiction) is peppered throughout, lending FM radio staples like "Love Hurts" (Nazareth), "Baby, I Love Your Way" (Peter Frampton), and "Let It Ride" (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) a bit of campy weight, while darker and more obvious cuts such as "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Blue Öyster Cult), "Only Women Bleed" (Alice Cooper), and "Halloween II" (Misfits) help to keep things appropriately menacing. Composer Tyler Bates (#Dawn of the Dead, #300) does a nice job of keeping Carpenter's original score prominent without sacrificing his own work, and singer/songwriter and ex-Spiritual Cowboy Nan Vernon's closing rendition of "Mr. Sandman" is deliciously ominous, but it's the inclusion of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" that's going to get people into seats, if only to see if Neil Peart's mid-song rototom solo appears in a sex sequence or a murder scene.