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Music Conducted By
Jerry Goldsmith

Orchestrations By
 Jerry Goldsmith

Recorded By
 -

Performed By
 -

Album Produced By
Douglas Fake

Label
Intrada Special Collection Volume 34

Previous Release(s)
-

Year Of CD/Film Release
2006/1985

Running Time
12:13 Mins (Boo! only)

Availability
Limited Edition Release

Cues & Timings

(Boo! Cues only)

1. The House/Sheena
2. Those People/Practice/Strange Feelings
3. Sharp teeth/Let's Scare 'Em
4. What Fun/It's Okay/Jungle Zombie
5. Zombie Attack/Each Other
6. The Bike
7. The Jewelry
8. Catch Us/No Fall

Soundtrack Ratings

Disappointing

Functional

 Average

 Good

 Excellent

 Outstanding

Amazing Stories Volume 2 (Boo! only)
 
Amazing Stories was an ambitious TV series from 1985 that lasted only two seasons. Produced by famed film maker Steven Spielberg it was an attempt at bringing the world of 50s and 60s TV serials to a new generation. Sadly it failed miserably even with Spielberg himself penning numerous stories and attracting world class artists to write, direct and of course score. Jerry Goldsmith got to score one episode for friend and regular collaborator Joe Dante. Sadly Dante's career is full of misses with only the odd hit and flashes of brilliance. Still Dante does not deserve all the criticism for Boo! as he did not write it. Though he deserved to be criticised for not saying NO to working on this episode as it's truly awful. Neither funny, nor scary and definitely not dramatic in any way.

As a consequence little can be expected from even a great composer like Jerry Goldsmith to provide an interesting score. Perhaps if it was a full length movie the composer could have established his themes and motifs. But with the episode running of around 25 minute it's not surprising to find Goldsmith's score an uninspiring listen. Running for just over 12 minutes Goldsmith assembled a small group of musicians and added electronics to create a score that probably is more reminiscent in execution to the scores he wrote for TV shows like the Twilight Zone that had small musical budgets. The notes tell us Goldsmith was offered a budget for 45 musicians but declined and went with just 13! Clearly he enjoyed the experience and got somewhat nostalgic for those early days in Television.

Goldsmith's score is dominated by the electronics and style of the period he was writing in. Many ideas can be traced to scores such as Legend and Explorers. While some of the playing from the string quartet is reminiscent of the mischievous Gremlins music.  The main theme for strings and woodwinds for the two old ghosts who find their house invaded by a Porn Star and her partner is sweet and gentle and shows their inability in scaring their new owners out of the house. There is nothing wrong here but it feels under developed. The best moments here is the music for the Zombie where Goldsmith gets a chance to create some momentum with some minor percussion, while the Zombie Attack shows promise with a Logan's Run inspired chase motif. But sadly the sequence is over too quickly and things come to an end in under a minute.

For Goldsmith fans then you will know doubt want to own it regardless of the quality of this score and the others on this two CD set, but I recommend you do if only to support Intrada who have gone to a lot of effort to release the many scores from this series.