Fatal Frames soundtrack

What can I say about Al Festa that I haven't already said in my previous posts about his work? Today's focus, Fatal Frames, is not only my favorite film from Al, it's also one of my favorite gialli of all time, a point I seem to be sadly alone with among Italo-heads. This soundtrack is a great extension to the visual brilliance Fatal Frames has, and stylistically feels like a fusion between a Frizzi-esque electronic score and late 80s Italo disco.

This album was released in 1996 by ViviMusica Soundtracks to coincide with the Italian premiere of the film, and to the best of my research, it may have been discontinued before 2000. Granted, the only thing I remember reading is that it was discontinued somewhat quickly after the film's international release (as in showings at the Fantasia film festival, Fantasporto, what have you), so the date is more or less an assumption on my part. Thankfully, I found my copy for a measly six dollars off of an eBay affiliate, copies elsewhere tend to fall within the $20 range before shipping.

The liner notes are fascinating in that they contain a synopsis of the film that seems to have been penned by Al himself, as well as short biographies of Al and producer/star Stefania Stella, pictures of the star-studded cast, and full film credits on the back of the booklet.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Eternal City (Vocal)

2. Main Titles

3. Rome's Arrival: This Is Stefania

4. Roman Spellbounds

5. St. Angelo's Run

6. Candles In The Night

7. The Seance

8. Black Colosseum (Tamara's Death)

9. Professor Robinson Appears

10. The Best Memory (Love Theme From Fatal Frames)

11. Trevi In Rosso (Videokiller Attacks)

12. Candles In The Night (Nightmare Reprise)

13. Valenti Investigates

14. Final Nightstorm (Revelations)

15. Alibi '96

16. Desert Flower

17. Pensamiento Estupendo (Dance Mix)

18. Eternal City (Instrumental)

The soundtrack to Al's first feature film, Gipsy Angel has been much, much harder to track down, but hopefully I will find it one day. I know that Al had a promotional CD run of it to give out at screenings of the film throughout Europe, but only one copy of it has ever surfaced on the Internet as far as I can tell, and it's the copy that serves as the basis for that album's Discogs page.

Stagefright soundtrack

Michele Soavi's Stagefright, aka Deliria, aka Aquarius, aka Bloody Bird, is one of the all-time horror classics to emerge from the shaky late 80s period of Italian genre cinema. A protege of Joe D'Amato who later became a protege of Dario Argento, Soavi's short-lived spotlight in directing Italian horror led him to produce classic after classic: this film, The Church, The Sect, and finally his magnum opus Dellamorte Dellamore. The soundtrack to Stagefright contains what could be considered the other seeds of the "Filmirage sound" set by Carlo Maria Cordio, even though I don't recall this soundtrack being recycled in future Filmirage productions.

This soundtrack was mainly composed by Simon Boswell, previously of Phenomena and Demons 2 fame, and later went on to compose movies like Hardware, Dust Devil, Clive Barker's Lord Of Illusions, and Ashens And The Quest For The GameChild, while other cues were composed by Stefano Mainetti, who later achieved notoriety as the composer to the infamous Zombi 3.

The centerpiece of Mainetti's contributions is easily the main title theme; if you've seen the film, it's the piece that plays during the first sequence on stage, and really sets the tone for the film. The centerpiece of Boswell's contributions is easily Sharp Groove, one of the most recognizable pieces in the film, because it's the one that has the breakbeat throughout it. I remember reading an interview with Boswell in a Fangoria issue where he said what song the breakbeat was sampled from, but I honestly don't remember.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Aquarius-Main Titles*

2. Locked Up

3. Stairway To Hell

4. Quartet

5. Locked Up

6. Fish Dreams

7. Corridor

8. Sharp Groove

9. Locked Up

10. Voices (After The Burning)

11. Gun Talk

12. Stage Fright

13. On Mrs. "J" Planet*

14. Ballade For Corinne*

15. Aquarius-End Titles*

*Composed by Stefano Mainetti

This edition was released by Peter Blumenstock's Lucertola Media in 1994, in a limited edition of 1200 copies. Blumenstock is a name that has come up pretty often when I did extensive research for Al Festa's film Fatal Frames, especially when I picked up the June 1994 edition of German horror mag Splatting Image with Fatal Frames as the cover story, so it was cool to see a familiar name behind this. If you go to the Discogs page for this release, you'll notice that the "lowest" amount on the sales is an even $25... because that's how much I paid for my copy. This had to have been OOP since at least 2000, and the prices I usually see it for are very much OOP prices, so I was stoked to jump on that price when it was available. If you manage to find it for under $40, by all means, go for it.

Porno Holocaust soundtrack

Porno Holocaust is a movie that I'm honestly not that big a fan of, even though it's an interesting conversation piece. This hybrid of gory island creature feature and hardcore pornography was filmed during director Joe D'Amato and writer/co-star George Eastman's extended vacation in the Caribbean islands, a session that also produced films like Sesso Nero, Orgasmo Nero, Porno Esotic Love and the much superior horror/porn hybrid Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead. At a running time of just under two hours, over half of which is devoted to the numerous ridiculously long and uncomfortably awful porn sequences throughout the entire film, it gets boring extremely quickly. It doesn't help that one of the main male performers, Mark Shannon (aka Manlio Cersosimo), has a visibly serious case of genital warts. Eurgh.

However, this soundtrack by Nico Fidenco, a frequent D'Amato collaborator, is nothing short of excellent, and easily one of the best things about the film. It mixes the best that the porn-groove sound has to offer and seamlessly mixes it with a Caribbean atmosphere, during the sequences that the soundtrack is upbeat. There are a few ominous pieces throughout that are a little boring, but not every soundtrack can be all killer and no filler, especially for a film that really needed to fill some boring scenes with anything. Thankfully, this also includes the odd English-language love theme of sorts that appears during one of the porn sequences; I'd have imagined if anything was missing from the masters, it'd have been that mysterious song.

This soundtrack was released by BEAT Records in early 2012, as a limited run of 500 copies. I have no clue if the soundtrack is still being sold on BEAT's site, but I remember seeing a post a while back saying that only about 50 copies are left, and I imagine even less are left now. While most of this soundtrack's track listing is listed as numbered sequences, there is one bonus track smack dab in the middle of the album: Nico Fidenco's theme to the Italian TV miniseries Sexy Night. Since this song is nowhere in the film, I assume that when BEAT found the masters to the Porno Holocaust soundtrack, the master to the Sexy Night theme was just in there with them. This theme did show up in Sesso Nero, but isn't included in BEAT's soundtrack of that film.

The Visitor soundtrack

While Beyond The Door is a mostly unique, surreal, and beautiful experience, it is still going to drive several comparisons to Rosemary's Baby and especially The Exorcist, and for good reason. That isn't to deny it of its many, many positive qualities, but Italian producer Ovidio G. Assonitis' big followup of sorts, The Visitor (this version of the soundtrack presented under its original Italian title Stridulum), is an absolutely unique experience free of any real comparison. One of the biggest original Italian productions of the 70s in terms of its pure star power, surreal as hell but still sensible enough to keep the viewer along if and only if you're watching the uncut international version, and visually and sonically beautiful in just about every aspect. Franco Micalizzi's score here is a pure gem, especially when driven by the strength of the film's visuals.

Sadly, this Digitmovies edition of the soundtrack seems to have also fallen out of print, but it wasn't the last time I checked... which, honestly, was before Drafthouse's Blu came out. (Which, after seeing the downright shady shit Drafthouse seemed to have pulled around Code Red's release of the film, as well as hearing friends telling me the Blu doesn't look very good, I don't feel comfortable purchasing.) I know there seems to be an LP from RCA Italy which I assume dates to either the late 70s or early 80s, and in the early 90s, there was a dual soundtrack release of this paired with the soundtrack to Peter Del Monte's awful, horrible, terrible, abysmal, pathetic, Bad, BAD, BAD pile of garbage Etoile, and clearly I couldn't recommend buying something like that. If you can track this down for cheap enough, get it, because even the OOP prices I've seen seem to be not as bad as the ones for the Beyond The Door soundtrack.

Beyond The Door soundtrack

This CD has the honor of being the most I've ever had to pay for a soundtrack album, unfortunately. I made the mistake of waiting until after it went out of print to grab the 2011 Digitmovies edition of Franco Micalizzi's soundtrack to Ovidio G. Assonitis' Beyond The Door (here under its original Italian title Chi Sei?), and the absolute cheapest I was able to find it for was $40 from a listing on a French forum. It's weird, considering I once helped a friend find a cheaper listing right when it was going out of print, but that's just how things go, really.

To put it bluntly, this is an excellent soundtrack to an excellent film. The funky, jazzy score Micalizzi composed adds an interesting atmosphere to what already would be a great clone of Rosemary's Baby fused with elements of The Exorcist. It's unfortunate that this soundtrack is now discontinued, but you should still try to track it down in any way you can.

The tracklisting is as follows:

THE ORIGINAL ALBUM (STEREO)

1. Bargain With The Devil

2. Jessica's Theme

3. Dimitry's Theme

4. Robert's Theme

5. Jessica's Theme (#2)

6. Family's Theme

7. Bargain With The Devil (#2)

8. Flute Sequence

9. Dimitry's Theme (#2)

10. Family's Theme (#2)

BONUS TRACKS (MONO)

11. Chi Sei? (Prologue)

12. Jessica's Theme (#3)

13. Bargain With The Devil (#3)

14. Flute Sequence (#2)

15. Jessica's Theme (#4)

16. Dimitry's Theme (#3)

The Beyond expanded soundtrack CD

As I said in my post about the Bloodnight LP, Lucio Fulci's The Beyond is, in my opinion, the greatest horror film of all time. ALL TIME. Given that Italian horror is essentially my lifeblood, that is a remarkably high claim to come from me. As such, when the opportunity arose to pick the expanded soundtrack released by BEAT Records in 2011, I jumped at the opportunity. This makes my second copy of this film's soundtrack, the first being a CD included with Blackest Heart Media/Rotten Cotton's graphic novel adaptation of the film from the late 90s. (When Grindhouse Releasing issues their Blu of The Beyond in February, that will be my third copy of it, and I really hope it's sourced from this edition.)

Because a lot of the expansions seem to be alternate takes of compositions that had been released on earlier issues of the soundtrack, all of the tracks will be listed below with running times so I can differentiate them as much as I can. I won't link to any songs on the soundtrack, partially because I already had in the Bloodnight post, and partially because I may end up linking to the wrong sequence of that particular track.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Oltre La Soglia (1:35)*

2. Oltre La Soglia (3:20)*

3. Voci Dal Nulla (4:25)

4. Sequenza Coro E Orchestra (2:27)*

5. Suono Aperto (3:56)

6. Voci Dal Nulla (4:16)

7. Oltre La Soglia (3:59)

8. Giro Di Blues (2:20)*

9. Verso L'Ignoto (3:56)

10. Suono Aperto (1:32)*

11. Sequenza Ritmica A Tema (1:36)*

12. Voci Dal Nulla (2:56)

13. Oltre La Soglia (1:42)*

14. Sequenza Ritmica A Tema (4:22)*

15. Giro Di Blues (2:20)

16. Verso L'Ignoto (3:21)

17. Voci Dal Nulla (1:36)*

18. Suono Aperto (1:22)

19. Sequenza Coro E Orchestra (4:30)

20. Voci Dal Nulla (1:32)*

*Previously unreleased

This is something I will say to anyone who loves Italian horror as much as I do: Keep an eye on BEAT Records, as well as any other releases of Italian soundtracks. Surprises keep on popping out all the time from there; hell, the last thing I picked up from the Italian soundtrack front was a new CD issue of the soundtrack to Antonio Margheriti's The Last Hunter, composed by none other than Franco motherfucking Micalizzi himself. I mean, there are some miracles that likely won't ever happen, like the apparently destroyed masters for Marcello Giombini's Anthropophagus soundtrack resurrecting to give us a CD release, but I've heard a CD for Fulci's Contraband is on the way from BEAT! Keep your eyes peeled, and be open to just about anything!

The Crimes Of The Black Cat / Killing Birds

Honestly, I only picked this dual soundtrack CD from Digitmovies up for one of the soundtracks included. I've never seen Sergio Pastore's The Crimes Of The Black Cat, and haven't really had any interest in it yet, but I have seen and loved Claudio Lattanzi's Killing Birds, released in the US as the fifth entry in an actually nonexistent "Zombie" franchise. As such, I only ripped the Killing Birds side to my computer, not just because I love Killing Birds, but also because Carlo Maria Cordio's Filmirage material from this film and from La Casa 4 seem to get constantly reused in just about every horror film that Filmirage ever did. While I don't have any soundtrack to La Casa 4, I do at least have this part of the "Filmirage sound", so to speak.

Giving a tracklisting is honestly pointless for the Killing Birds section, considering the entire thing is just untitled sequences, typical of Italian soundtracks that were never really intended to have a soundtrack release back when the film was new. However, do still pick this up if you're a fan of anything Joe D'Amato, anything Carlo Maria Cordio, or anything Filmirage. I apologize if anyone was hoping for coverage on the Crimes Of The Black Cat section, but for the moment, it was just extraneous to me, personally. Perhaps one day I'll see the film and dig the soundtrack, but I doubt I'll come back to this article to give it a new writeup.

Bloodnight

This LP is by far one of the rarest in my collection, and one of the most interesting to boot. In 1982, this record was released as the "official soundtrack", so to speak, to the 12th Festival International De Paris Du Film Fantastique Et De Science Fiction, with a special focus on my favorite director of all time, Lucio Fulci. This is one of the earliest re-releases of any soundtrack material from any of Fulci's films after their original LP releases in Italy (if applicable), long before companies like Lucertola Media came into being or BEAT Records got to releasing anything to CD; selections from The Beyond (the greatest horror film of all time) and The House By The Cemetery are included here in warm vinyly glory, as well as original material for the festival by avant-garde musician Yan Tregger.

The tracklisting is as follows:

Yan Tregger

A1. Bloodnight

A2. Shout In The Dark

A3. Bloodnight (instrumental)

B1. Stab (Festival Overture)

Fabio Frizzi (The Beyond soundtrack)

B2. Verso L'Ignoto

B3. Suono Aperto

B4. Sequenza Coro E Orchestra

Walter Rizzati (The House By The Cemetery soundtrack)

B5. Quella Villa

B6. I Remember

B7. Tema Bambino

Because of the multiple reissues of those soundtracks on CD over the years, that Yan Tregger material is really the only reason to go after this disc, although I would think that the Fulci soundtracks are the reason this LP is so rare in the first place. Bloodnight itself is a pretty awesome dark euro-disco piece, and the best way I've ever seen it described online is "if Thriller came from Hell". Shout In The Dark would make some interesting background music for a club scene in some ultra-violent late 80s French exploitation flick, too. The festival overture that opens side B is merely a sped up rearrangement of Bloodnight, and it's pretty short.

I scored a copy of this album for about fifty dollars after an unchallenged eBay bid, from a seller in California. It came still in its original shrinkwrap, but I did end up pulling that off once I realized it was opened to pull the record out. (Cue the sounds of fellow collectors cringing.) If it helps any, I did hold onto that shrinkwrapping and keep it as an extra insert inside the jacket, in case I ever wanted to go through the headache-inducing process of putting it back on again.

I have to wonder if Fulci ever held onto a copy of this record for himself...