Soundtrack Review: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Fright Night by Ramin Djawadi.

"The film may suck, but the score is up there with the best."

Fright Night is for many, me included, a piece of nostalgic horror. I remember watching the film in the late eighties with my sister and it was pure scary fun, eighties style. For some reason no one likes a remake, or at least that's the initial thought. At least we will get more film music and I know horror is one of my favorite genres. Brad Fiedel composed the score for the 1985 movie, Ramin Djawadi is composing the 2011 version.

Track List

Some say Ramin Djawadi's music skill is limited, I say there's more to him than what most people think. He is usual an action score man, but he did compose for the film The Unborn a couple of years ago and did a decent job. For Fright Night he has further improved on that and it turns out to be pretty good.

Understandably, Brad Fiedel's 1985 score is more synth, less orchestral, but still a horror classic. Ramin Djawadi's version is a whole different ballgame. It's orchestral and generally more scary than Fiedel's effort.

The main theme 'Welcome to Fright Night' has a fantastic beginning with some quick taps on a church organ before it starts pumping energy with some strings and specially that fast string sequence midway through has got me going. The end title 'Fright Night' has a wicked bass synth as well as more modern scoring while playing the theme.

Great cues are sprinkled all over the place. There's some terrific action sequences with added choir for pure fun like the cue 'We Could Rock This Evil Thing Together'. Then you have an eerie but wonderful cue called '400 Years of Survival' that sounds very vampir-y. One of my favorite cues are 'No House, No Invitation'. It is bustling with energy and I love those parts where the solo violin is practically trembling. Then you have some great action in there, but it never leaves the realm of horror music.

Conclusion

The film may suck, but the score is up there with the best. I love the fact that Ramin has managed to create quite a melodical score while keeping the score scary and traditional. There's a lot here to enjoy for horror fans, but I don't think it will become a horror classic like Fiedel's 1985 version. Still, one of the better horror scores so far this year. Just pure fun!

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Listen to the Fright Night soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi below: