Audio

Super Soundtrack: Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Though this blog is Halloween Shindig, we’ve been known to take brief holiday detours once Christmas rolls around. Particularly for a film that is near and dear to our hearts….

Primarily this is because Halloween Shindig is a music blog and one of our favorite things about Silent Night, Deadly Night is its unique and original Christmas soundtrack.

5 years ago, when this blog was in its infancy, we posted 2 songs and several crummy gifs (now revamped) from the film.  We also asked if anyone knew where we could find the rest of this bizarre music. Of course no one did, because no one knew and no one reads this blog.

However, Death Waltz Records apparently heard our Christmas prayers.

A few years back, they released a double-album featuring not only the unreleased soundtrack by Morgan Ames but also the erratic and beautifully atonal synth score from Perry Botkin. Double bonus.

We thought, it being Christmas and all, that this was a perfect time to roll out a second Super Soundtrack, and give the entire OST and score a little extra Shindig magic.

This Super Soundtrack comes complete with all the original Morgan Ames tracks from the film (plus a bonus track!) and the majority of the Perry Botkin score, all arranged chronologically with tons of great samples to wrap it up in a naughty Christmas bow. We hope you enjoy this gift as much as we do.


Click Silent Night, Deadly Night Super Soundtrack to download a zip file containing all the songs, the artwork and an iTunes playlist file!

Or you can stream it directly below!

So grab a carton of milk and relax under a tiger painting to this festive audio offering.

A few notes here on this amazing album:

This soundtrack is nuts.

What I imagine happened was that either the producers didn’t have the budget to shell out for actual Christmas music or no one was willing to give them the rights to use that music in such a context. Or the 3rd option that they just wanted to have an amazing soundtrack filled with new and interesting Christmas music.

Whatever the reason, what emerged was an absolute gem of an album, both as a Soundtrack and just a good-ole-fashioned Christmas album. Some of these tracks sound so legit you’d almost believe they were actual, pre-existing Christmas songs: specifically, the festive carol Christmas Fever and the subtly unnerving Santa’s Watching, a tune which characters even reference during the movie, adding to its legitimacy.

The original title for Silent Night, Deadly Night was Slay Ridewhich is a pretty outstanding title on its own. It was pitched, backed, filmed and even edited with this title, only changing in the last minute for reasons unbeknownst to this blog.

As such, Morgan Ames whipped up one hell of an (almost) Title Track for that movie which, unfortunately,  is not featured in the final cut, despite being listed in the credits. For years this drove me nuts. “Slayrider? What fucking song is that?! I need to hear this song immediately! What is this nonsense!?”

The silver lining, of course, is that it exists, someone found it and then decided it was a good idea to finally release it. They were right, because it’s an awesome song. A song I wish was actually featured in the movie, however out of place it may have been there.

Also, the official Death Waltz release contains 2 other songs that I decided to omit from the Super Soundtrack, I Want To Sing You a Love Song and Christmas Party.

These songs aren’t particularly memorable nor are they featured in the film (or even listed in the credits) and so are extraneous in my estimation. I apologize if you really like them. My guess is, you won’t lose any sleep over it.

In closing, I’d just like to say that I really can’t properly express how stoked I was when this album was released. I honestly never thought it would happen. And not just to finally have access to full versions of Christmas Flu or It Must Be Christmas, or to finally hear (and be overcome with Christmas joy over) Slayrider, but because Perry Botkin’s score is absolutely bonkers. It really is as unsettled and layered as Billy’s psyche and works perfectly to express that unbalanced nature.

I love it, and I hope you will love this blending of the many sounds of Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Merry Christmas!

Audio

Super Soundtrack: Trick or Treat (1986)

The one that started it all. This is a Super Soundtrack The Shindig has bumped for years. Upon a recent listening, we thought “Hey, we should post this. Maybe everyone that likes Trick or Treat will dig this deluxe version.” Don’t ask and you still might receive, I guess.

Trick or Treat is a special movie with a pretty special soundtrack. Not only is it a Halloween movie with a Referentially-Inclusive-Halloween-Title-Track, but it has an entire album’s worth of tunes for an almost out-of-the-box Super Soundtrack. This makes it a great choice to kick off our Super Soundtracks feature.

What’s also fun is how expository these songs are. Without being a musical or even a rock opera, this soundtrack describes almost exactly what’s happening on screen while it’s happening.

Eddie’s getting mad and ripping all his posters off his wall?

“Tear Down the walls! Tearing ‘em down!”

Eddie’s feeling so beaten down he just wants to give it all up?

“Don’t stop the fight! Don’t die now!”

Eddie’s finally getting a little revenge?

“Get tough! This boy’s had enough!”

It’s just so awesomely explicit.

Some of these songs though, provided by 80’s butt-rocker’s Fastway, barely get enough screen time. One song, Hold On to the Night (a personal favorite) only appears in the film backwards. For shame!

So we chopped, diced, sliced and spruced this Super Soundtrack to feature the entire album rearranged linearly with a ton of movie clips, plus an extra special addition that doesn’t appear on the original release!

It’s the closet thing to watching Trick or Treat without actually watching Trick or Treat, which you should also do this October.

Provided here is a quick link to download a zip version of the Trick Or Treat Super Soundtrack!

And below is an audio player for your streaming pleasure.

Happy Halloween!

 

Enter The Super Soundtracks!

I think it’s pretty safe to say that we here at Halloween Shindig dig music. Specifically, horror themed Halloween and movie music.

Naturally then, a lot of songs found on The Shindig are from soundtracks, of which we are big fans.

However, sometimes a song or two just isn’t enough. Sometimes a soundtrack is so awesome it deserves a little extra attention.

Enter: Halloween Shindig’s Super Soundtracks, where we give an entire album a deluxe wash and wax then buff it to perfection.

Patchbays and filter is what it means, I guess

What does that mean exactly? Well,..

Typically you’ll find we’ve taken the tracks and placed them in their chronological order from the film, spliced in samples and bits from the movie itself and added any auxiliary songs from the film that are not featured on the official soundtrack (if there is one.)

Thus, The Shindig provides you with a completely immersive soundtrack experience the likes of which you have never heard!

Stay tuned for more Super Soundtracks throughout the year and enjoy!