Ennio Morricone - The Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982 - 320kbps)

Update 10/31/2010: I regularly check my site statistics to try and get a better feel for which posts are the most popular on the blog. I noticed that I was received a lot of traffic coming from people searching google for "The Thing OST". I decided to check my download statistics also, and was surprised that this is the second most downloaded album on the entire blog. I wanted to update this post because I realized that I had posted a 128kbps MP3 version, which was all I had available at the time. Since then I have managed to acquire a version of this in a much higher bitrate of 320kbps MP3, and have replaced the old download link with the higher quality version. I am also in the process of uploading a few different bootleg versions of the soundtrack and score. Once they are complete I will update this post once again and add the link to each of those bootlegs to this post.

Considering the recent Lovecraft related albums we have posted here, it is very fitting that I post this album, but the obvious connection didn't dawn on me until after I had already uploaded the album. For those who are not aware, The Thing is an obvious tribute to H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". However, I chose to share this album simply because it is one of the best soundtracks to a horror movie period, not because it draws it's inspiration from a Lovecraft tale. The music composed by Ennio Morricone is similar in composition to John Carpenter's score for Halloween. There is a consistent atmosphere of impending doom throughout, yet there is an absence of loud outbursts from the orchestra that one might normally find in horror music, which helps to maintain a sense of dread, making this one of the more memorable horror soundtracks in existence. This was originally released on vinyl by MCA Records in 1982, and then rereleased by Verese Sarabande nearly 10 years later on CD. It has long been out of print and is currently unavailable for purchase.

Year of Release: 1982
Label: Varese Sarabande
Genres: Soundtrack/Score, Horror
Bitrate: 320kbps

Track List:
1. Humanity (Part I)
2. Shape
3. Contamination
4. Bestiality
5. Solitude
6. Eternity
7. Wait
8. Humanity (Part II)
9. Sterilization
10. Despair
11. Humanity (Movie Version)

Download: Ennio Morricone - The Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Download Size: 111MB