TRACK #437:

Help Is On The Way by Horizon

Speaking of Halloween, we’re gonna wrap up the 430s with a short block of songs that were supposed to be additions from Shindig Radio Ep. 26 It’s In The Movie: Halloween Edition.

But since that episode hasn’t happened yet as planned, those songs will get a chance to debut on the playlist, as God intended. When that episode manifests is anyone’s guess, so let’s just do the honorable thing.

Ironically, it was last night’s song that was to be featured on that episode, which I can’t say for this song, because we already featured it back in Ep. 21, the What the Fuck? Edition of It’s in the Movie. Because if there was ever a “what the fuck is this song doing on a Halloween playlist, let alone a Halloween movie” it’s Help is On the Way from 1982’s Trick or Treats.

Now, I’ve expressed my love/hate/but ultimately love relationship with that Halloween (but not exactly) knock-off in the past, so I won’t necessarily reiterate those sentiments here. I’ll just say it’s got plenty of holiday atmosphere, is definitely worth a seasonal viewing and you can do that right here on TeleWeen.

As for its tonally incongruous closing number, it’s also worthy of inclusion, at least as far I’m concerned anyway.

This one comes courtesy of the band, well not exactly a real band with singles and albums and such, but the band Horizon. I’m not even sure how much of a “band” it is in the classical sense. They seem to be the pseudonym used by composer and editor Tom Barger when doing soundtrack work, specifically for Gary Graver, the director of Trick or Treats.

Gary Graver was mostly a cinematographer, famously working for years with Orson Welles on The Other Side of the Wind. He also shot Satan’s Sadists, Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Toolbox Murders and Spirits, to name a few. But he didn’t direct too many of his own pictures, that is unless you count pornography, of which he directed a few several dozen under the Name Robert McCallum.

And that’s where we can also find other Horizon songs. Gary’s 1983 film Private Moments features several tunes from the group and they are credited with providing the score for Gary’s Private Teacher. And they’re (or perhaps just he is) no slouch either, because Horizon can boast the Adult Film Association of America’s top honor, which they won in 1984 for their score to Gary Graver’s Susie Superstar. Solid.

Now, does that mean you should end your Halloween-themed slasher with this breezy, carefree, easy-listener? Absolutely not.

But does that mean we should add it to the Shindig? Abso-fuckin-lutely.

I make the joke in Ep. 21 that maybe playing the least scary and least exciting song is the most logical way to end one of the least scary and least exciting Halloween films of all time. So, maybe Horizon’s Help Is On The Way is the most appropriate Halloween Sweet Song possible.

It’s definitely a most appropriate addition to Halloween Shindig, cause what would this playlist be without a couple of real signifying head scratchers to keep the uninitiated guessing?

So, here to change up the pace, maybe run off the majority of your party goers, and make your Halloween as surreptitiously festive as possible, it’s Horizon’s Help Is On The Way.