Night of the Creeps

This is a movie I must admit I have not seen, but have heard people talk of it many times, the composer Barry DeVorzon, I do not link with actual film scores, but think of him when discussing TV music, I know he was successful within this medium in the United States for a lengthy period and was responsible for numerous themes and background scores for popular television series. But also did score motion pictures and was associated with filmmakers such as Walter Hill. Night of the creeps is by the look of things something of a tongue in cheek horror tale along the lines of the more recent Shawn of the dead, well it looks that way anyhow. The music is a fusion of orchestral colours and electronic styles with the accent leaning more towards the synthetic rather than traditional side of things, by this I mean it is a largely synthesises work, but the composer has written the work as if he is composing for orchestra, DeVorzon manages to create some real atmospheric passages along the way in what is a surprisingly infectious and entertaining listen. I say surprising because the movie was released during the 1980.s and film music as far as I am concerned at that time was in a bit of a lull at least in the USA, films were being tracked with songs and music that had supposedly been inspired by the films storyline, which we all know was not true, it was just producers and studios tacking on songs in the hope that they would be popular away from the film and thus make them more cash, and I have to say this CD also includes 4 songs. Given the subject matter of THE NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, Horror! It was often the case that the score to many such movies within that genre relied upon non musical stabs and jolts crash’s and thuds on soundtracks etc to enhance the creepy or gory goings on unfolding up on the screen. De Vorzon however has fashioned a solid and well structured score, that I am sure not only serves the movie well, but is also listenable away form the picture, ok he wont get the award for best melodic or tuneful score for a movie, but his textures and musical colours are interesting and certainly original, or at least they were back in the 1980,s.

The soundtrack puts me in mind of something that Italian group Goblin might have produced for a movie, it has that sort of aire to it, its threatening, tense and at times downright scary, but it also retains a certain musicality to it, and has at times a slight rock edge to its makeup, and the odd tender but bittersweet respite on a handful of cues. I am not sure the more traditional soundtrack collector would appreciate this score, but I for one feel it would be a welcomed addition to ones collection. The CD is well packaged and presented, with excellent liner notes which are exhaustively researched and interesting to read whilst taking in DeVorzon,s atmospheric score. There is also a short but appealing interview with the composer on the compact disc, which is a bonus for us all.