John Carpenter – “Halloween Triumphant”

Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter – “Halloween Triumphant”

Sophie Gransard

40 years ago, the genre-film legend John Carpenter directed Halloween, a Hitchcockian low-budget classic that essentially invented the slasher film and changed the face of horror cinema forever. He also composed the score, a tingling synthetic thing that’s been sampled in a bajillion rap songs in the decades that followed. This month, we’ll get to see director David Gordon Green’s new Halloween sequel, a reboot that picks up 40 years later and acts as if all the previous singles — which vary wildly in quality — never happened. And Carpenter has once again composed the score.

John Carpenter isn’t just one of the greatest directors in horror history; he’s also one of the greatest composers. And while Carpenter hasn’t directed a new movie in years, he’s been back at it with music lately, releasing albums of ominous synth instrumentals with the help of his son Cody Carpenter and his godson Daniel Davies. So he’s obviously the guy to score this new Halloween.

We’ve already posted Carpenter’s track “The Shape Returns.” But now he’s also shared the seven-minute instrumental “Halloween Triumphant,” which takes that tingly original Halloween them and turns it into a pulsing instrumental track. Listen below.

Halloween is in theaters 10/19. The movie’s score is out the same day on Sacred Bones. Read our interview with Carpenter here.

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