The themes associated with Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Dr. The rhythm was inspired by an exercise my father taught me on the bongos in 1961, the beating out of 5-4 time. Halloween’s main title theme was the first to go down on tape.

recently, my association with Alan Howarth has led me to a synchronized video-tape system, a sort of “play it to the TV” approach. We were working in what I call the “double-blind” mode in 1978, which simply means that the music was composed and performed in the studio, on the spot, without reference or synchronization to the actual picture. His fine taste and musicianship polished up the edges of an already minimalistic, rhythm-inspired score. I have to credit Dan as Halloween’s musical co-producer. He programmed the synthesizers, oversaw the recording of my frequently imperfect performances, and often joined me to perform a difficult line or speed-up the seemingly never ending process of overdubbing one instrument at a time. I had worked with him in 1976 on the music for Assault. With Herrmann and Morricone in mind, the scoring for Halloween began in late June at Sound Arts Studios, then a small brick building in an alley in central Los Angeles. His score for Psycho, the film that inspired Halloween, was primarily all string instruments. Hermann’s ability to create an imposing, powerful score with limited orchestra means, using the basic sound of a particular instrument, high strings or low bass, was impressive. My major influences as a composer were Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone (who I had the opportunity to work with on The Thing). I was the fastest and cheapest I could get. I had composed and performed the musical scores for my first two features, Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, as well as many student films. I then became determined to “save it with the music.” I screened the final cut minus sound effects and music, for a young executive from 20th Century-Fox (I was interviewing for another possible directing job). I had three weeks of pre-production planning, twenty days of principle photography, and then Tommy Lee Wallace spent the rest of the spring and summer cutting the picture, assisted by Charles Bornstein and myself. It was my third feature and my first out-and-out horror film. It was based on an idea by Irwin Yablans about a killer who stalks baby-sitters, tentatively titled The Baby-sitter Murders until Yablans suggested that the story could take place on October 31st and Halloween might not be such a bad title for an exploitation-horror movie. Halloween was written in approximately 10 days by Debra Hill and myself.

Darkstar one soundtrack