Charles Bernstein - Cujo / The Covenant: Original Soundtracks (Promo - 1983/1985 - 320kbps)

This is a promo release for two scores by Charles Bernstein, known to me by his iconic score for A Nightmare On Elm Street. Yet another Stephen King treat is served up with Cujo, a film that probably scarred me for life when I saw it as a youngster. A once lovable Saint Bernard slowly transforms into a rabid instrument of Karma, ferociously dispatching a string of mostly unlikable characters. Watching this movie, it probably won't be apparent until later that you are watching a horror film. It is in part due to the score which follows what I like to call the "JAWS" formula. John Williams created music for that film which often didn't match the onscreen action very well. There are scenes where the music plays quite light-heartedly when it should be revving up the tension. The first half of Bernstein's Cujo plays it quite classy and pretty, with zero hints of horror or suspense. Halfway through Cujo things begin to get dark, and it is from this point on that Bernstein shows his horror chops on this release. As for The Covenant, I have never seen it, and IMDB doesn't even have a page for it. About the music, I can say it fits perfectly with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Bernstein sticks mostly to orchestral arrangements with elements of mystery, suspense and horror, and the occasional choral accompaniment or electronic creepiness. He pays tribute to the late great Jerry Goldsmith and his score for The Omen with the funny parenthetical titles on the main and end titles. If anyone has any information on the film this score comes from, please comment.

Year of Films Release: 1983/1985
Label: N/A, Promo
Catalog #: CBPRO - 001
Genres: Soundtrack/Score, Horror, Electronic
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 320kbps

Track List:
1-13 from Cujo
1. Theme From Cujo (02:41)
2. Main Title - The Hunt (02:15)
3. Main Title - The House (02:11)
4. Bedtime Poem (01:59)
5. Cujo & Boy (01:21)
6. End Of The Day (02:58)
7. Foggy Morning Cujo (02:12)
8. Cujo Dark (02:35)
9. Cujo Pulse (01:15)
10. Entrance To Isolation (03:09)
11. A Very Bad Dog (03:09)
12. Dog Attacks (03:56)
13. End Titles (02:42)
14-25 from The Covenant
14. Main Title (Ave Goldsmith) (02:10)
15. The Legend Of The Damned (02:30)
16. Slow Death In Ballard (02:25)
17. The Seduction (02:06)
18. The Unholy Of Mercer Island (02:30)
19. Darkness Falls In Wallingford (00:56)
20. Voices Of The Damned (02:16)
21. Fife Demons (03:17)
22. Death Of A Friend (01:53)
23. The Summoning (00:46)
24. The Black Lake (04:59)
25. Finale/End Title (Jerry Satani) (01:35)

Download: Charles Bernstein - Cujo / The Covenant: Original Soundtracks
Download Size: 137MB

Christopher Young - A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (Complete Score) (1985 - 320kbps)

A Nightmare on Elm Street defied all expectations and became an instant cult classic when it hit the theaters in the Fall of 1984. The film was created on a modest budget of $1.8 million dollars, and chose not to spend a great deal of money on advertising. However, what the film lacked in funding, it made up for in imagination and innovation. The film managed to put together the perfect recipe for success with its highly original concept and screenplay courtesy of Wes Craven, excellent cinematography, convincing special effects, an effective musical score by Charles Bernstein, and one of the most memorable, charismatic villains of all time in Freddy Krueger. Word-of-mouth advertising more than made up for the lack of funds devoted to commercial advertising, with news surrounding the film circulating like wildfire among horror enthusiasts. The film was a huge financial success, and would spawn one of the most famous and financially successful franchises in the horror genre, consisting of eight sequels, a television show, twelve novels, and numerous graphic novel and comic book adaptions.

While the second film in the franchise didn't quite capture the magic of the first, Christopher Young's score was every bit as effective as the original score composed by Charles Bernstein. Most people wouldn't become familiar with Christopher Young until he achieved critical acclaim for composing the score to Clive Barker's "Hellraiser", but his undeniable talent and unique style were apparent early on as is evident in his score for Nightmare. Young has the unique ability to create a truly dreadful atmosphere that somehow manages to retain a magical dreamlike quality to it, making him the perfect candidate to compose the score to a film that features a killer who dispatches his victims in their dreams. It is this unique ability that makes him one of my favorite composers of film scores from any genre.

Varèse Sarabande released the original soundtrack on vinyl in 1986, which contained 13 tracks. The version I am providing here is a 22 track bootleg containing Christopher Young's complete motion picture score. I wish I knew who was responsible for creating this so I can give credit where it is due, but to be honest I have no idea who was behind this. Whoever it was did an excellent job of putting this together though. Fortunately it was ripped at a high quality bitrate so you can listen to the score without having to suffer through a low quality recording. A few custom album art images are also included, which originated from the Lost Scores blog (http://lostscores-pagemaster.blogspot.com), where you can find a number of beautiful custom album covers created by this talented individual. You can find Charles Bernstein's soundtrack to the original Nightmare on Elm Street posted here

Year of Release:
Label: N/A | Bootleg Release
Genre: Soundtrack/Score, Horror
Bitrate: 320kbps

Tracklist:
1. Opening Credits
2. Wild Drive on the Bus
3. Trapped With Freddy
4. Freddy at the Furnace/Kill For Freddy
5. Snake
6. Heat Dream/Freddy's Glove
7. Demented Bird
8. Rainy Night
9. Running Laps
10. Attack of the Balls/Schneider Wasted
11. Noisy Glove/Jump Rope
12. Flaming Unplugged Toaster
13. Boiler Room Fright
14. Walking Angela
15. Slimy Tongue
16. Transformation/Grady Killed
17. The Party Starts
18. Fight Him/Lisa Chased/Love For the Beauty
19. The Rage Continues/Freddy's Children/Up In Flames
20. Boiler Room
21. Beauty and the Beast/Kissing Freddy/Jesse Returns
22. It's All Over

Download: Christopher Young - A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (Complete Score)
Download Size: 99MB

Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street OST

This will be the first movie soundtrack from what I like to consider the modern day equivalents of the Universal Studios monster films. The children of the 30's and 40's had Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Mummy to haunt their dreams. However, if you were a child of the 80's, such as myself, it was Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers that made you afraid to go to the bathroom late at night. The "Freddy vs. Jason" crossover, despite it's obvious flaws, is akin to the crossovers of yesteryear in many ways. 1942's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man", marked the first time that two major Universal Studios monsters would appear together on the same film, and 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla" was the ultimate monster showdown of it's time.

Many would agree that the Nightmare on Elm Street series overstayed it's welcome with the release of eight sequels, and the franchise went downhill in more ways than one after the original. As with several other horror franchises during this period, Hollywood just didn't know when to quit while they were ahead. However, despite the generic and repetitive plots which revolved around exterminating sex-crazed teenagers in the most gruesome ways imaginable, years of public exposure helped these modern day monsters reach legendary status equal to that of their Universal Studios counterparts.

The theme music associated with each of these modern day monsters is as recognizable as their character's image, whether you are a fan of their respective films or not. First up is Charles Bernstein's amazing score to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Bernstein shunned the traditional orchestral approach for this film, opting for state of the art synthesizers and sound effects instead. There is also a touch of electric guitar used on "Laying The Traps". Bernstein's richly layered score created a sinister atmosphere, which perfectly captured the nightmare world inhabited by Freddy Krueger. The inorganic, dehumanized tones produced by the synthesizers underscore a waking detachment from reality. The sounds of heart beats, boiler room groans, blasts of steam, and low whispering help to heighten the tension of the music another degree. Although parts of this score may sound dated, and one will easily recognize it as the product of the 80's, this score still holds up extremely well and will forever be associated with the modern day monster, Freddy Krueger.

Track List:
1. Prologue
2. Main Title
3. Laying Out The Traps
4. Dream Attack
5. Rod Hanged/Night Stalking
6. Jail Cell
7. Confrontation
8. Sleep Clinic
9. Terror In The Tub
10. No Escape
11. School Horror/Stay Awake
12. Telephone Terror
13. Lurking
14. Fountain of Blood
15. Evil Freddy
16. Final Search
17. Run Nancy

Download: Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare On Elm Street OST
Download Size: 30MB

Charles Bernstein - April Fool's Day OST

April Fool's Day is one of my favorite slasher movies from the 80's, and recently I was delighted to finally obtain a copy of this wonderful score, composed by the great Charles Bernstein. Although April Fool's Day may not register very high on the rewatchability meter (not because it's a bad movie, but because of it's twist ending), the soundtrack is capable of creating a frightful atmosphere upon each listen.

Bernstein is best remembered for composing the score to the original Nightmare on Elm Street. With Nightmare Bernstein experimented heavily with synths, creating thick layers of noise over eerie melodies, which could almost be described as industrial on certain tracks. You won't find synths here, and it certainly doesn't sound industrial at any point, but Bernstein doesn't shy away from experimenting with both traditional orchestral and exotic instruments, and the result works much better as a horror score than that of Nightmare. It is very minimalistic in it's approach at times, yet when the slashing begins on film, Bernstein mirrors it with the slashing of strings to create a truly terrifying sound.

This masterful horror score ends on a very silly note with a truly zany bonus track, "Too Bad You're Crazy", by Jerry Whitman. The addition of this track is puzzling to me, but I suppose there must be some reasonable answer as to why it was included. Personally, I prefer to listen to the score without the addition of this song, however I'm sure that some of you will appreciate it's inclusion.

To my knowledge this score is out of print now, and as the years go by it is becoming increasingly rare. For those of you who love horror, or simply enjoy great movie scores, this would make a great addition to your collection.

Track List:
1. Intro
2. Main Title
3. Choke And Dagger
4. Pier Pressure
5. All´s Well That Ends
6. Snakes Alive
7. Stab In The Dark
8. Hanging Around
9. The House
10. Trick Or Threat
11. Nan In Danger
12. Nightwatch
13. Sitting Duck
14. Night
15. Getting The Point
16. Little Miss Muffy
17. Muffy Attack
18. First Victim
19. Hack-In-The-Box
20. Too Bad You're Crazy (Bonus Track)

Download: Charles Bernstein - April Fool's Day OST
Download Size: 45MB