Details:
- Film: Carrie (Original) – Deluxe Edition
- Soundtrack composer: Pino Donaggio
- Original year of release: 1976
- Number of tracks: 18
- Soundtrack duration: 38 mins 2 secs
- Tracks with vocals/distracting aspects: 7 Tracks (8 mins 5 secs) (Tracks 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17)
- Film score duration (with distracting tracks removed): 29 mins 57 secs
- Suggested suitable book genres: Quiet and evocative horrors and creepy, eerie thrillers. Unsurprisingly a Stephen King novel would be perfect for reading with this soundtrack playing in the background. Obviously, reading ‘Carrie’ (1974) itself is beyond ideal.
DLS Summary:
The soundtrack as a whole is generally quite a quiet one, with a recurring sense of unease building from within the music. Most of the tracks are built around strings accompanied by some piano. At times some other instruments also blend into this otherwise predominantly strings driven score.
Interspersed with these tracks we also have various snippets of dialogue extracted straight from the film, as well as a couple of songs with vocals on them. These are all sectioned off in their own tracks, so they can be easily extracted or skipped if so desired (i.e. if you’re using the score to read to).
All in all, a solid score with some wonderfully evocative tracks which hark back to 1970s style horror.
DLS Review:
The score starts out with an opening track offering a calm and subdued string piece, slow and melodic, offering up a peaceful and tranquil composition of multiple strings and a delicately played piano. After a short while a flute joins the mix whereby we continue to remain firmly within the realms of soft, calm and peaceful.
Track Two is the song ‘I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me’ which is a song written by soundtrack composer Pino Donaggio with vocals by Katie Irving.
Track Three is a snippet of dialogue from the film.
Track Four is another string heavy piece, although this one is far less tranquil than the opening track, and instead more one which is filled with creeping suspense and tension. It’s almost entirely strings for a good chunk of the piece before our piano friend once again joins the party, along with the odd twinkle from a chime bar set, and a few small flutters from a harp.
Track Five is another snippet of dialogue from the film.
Track Six comes in quietly at first with more strings again, this time feeling reserved and very 1970’s, with almost a Spanish guitar feel to it. This doesn’t last long however, before more urgent strings come in, delivering a dramatic effect akin to an urgent score from a black and white 1950s thriller or the like.
Track Seven on the other hand returns once again to those calm and tranquil vibes, with another good dose of piano and strings. There’s also a flute thrown in, keeping things serene and peaceful until all of a sudden, the tone changes with abrupt pockets of suspense and (relatively mediocre) tension.
Track Eight is another song by Pino Donaggio with vocals by Katie Irving again.
Track Nine is a tense string piece with mounting bursts of low-noted trumpets, creating an air of barely repressed tension. This track is perhaps the least strings driven track, but instead one that blends a multitude of orchestral disciplines together into the one track. The end result is something you might expect to find within an Alfred Hitchcock score. It’s also one very much geared towards pacing and energy.
Track Ten is another snippet of dialogue from the film.
Track Eleven is an atmospheric piece, using waves of mild distortion and a low-played cello to produce an air of tension and unease.
Track Twelve is back to the quieter strings, again with a looming sense of unease lurking behind the track. The introduction of some more brass instruments does bring with it a glimmer of something akin to hope, but its possibly a downcast hope at best.
Track Thirteen is another track that moves between strings and piano with a multitude of different tones and vibes embedded within the music. We have urgency and tension, moving to suspense to a quiet sadness and tranquillity. In fact, the whole track moves along in these varying stages, giving it a certain complexity above the other tracks on the score.
Track Fourteen is another snippet of dialogue from the film.
Track Fifteen is a string dominated piece which starts off with a bucket load of drama and energy behind it and stays with this purposeful energy until it stumbles to an almost abrupt end.
Track Sixteen is a flute driven piece that would feel at home in a ‘Nekromantik’ film (during those wonderfully peaceful romantic moments). And then all of a sudden, a burst of energy hits the piece from out of nowhere (lasting for roughly ten seconds), then we’re back to the calm and tranquil flutes and strings again.
Track Seventeen is another snippet of dialogue from the film.
Track Eighteen is an evocative and moving piece with strings and piano leading the majority of the way through the track. It’s a piece which is full or emotion stirring musical movements. In fact, the music manages to reach into your body and saddening you with its evocative waves. The flutes that come into the piece also play on your heartstrings in an equally sad and evocative way.
As a soundtrack for reading to:
The soundtrack as a whole:
© DLS Reviews
