Marco Beltrami: Scream (soundtrack, 30th anniversary, final phone call blue vinyl, indie exclusive) [VARESE SARABANDE]

Why you'll love it

This 30th anniversary edition presses the original 14-track score album on indie exclusive final phone call blue vinyl, in a sleeve featuring Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker. It's the score that started Beltrami on the road to becoming one of horror's leading composers.

This edition

• 30th anniversary edition
• Final phone call blue vinyl
• Indie exclusive

About the album

Wes Craven's 1996 slasher follows Sidney Prescott, a Woodsboro high schooler grieving her mother's murder a year on, and the masked killer Ghostface. Here's a nice detail for its score: Marco Beltrami had never scored, or even seen, a horror film when he got the job. Fresh out of USC's film scoring program, he sent Wes Craven about 13 minutes of music for the opening sequence, and Craven later said they knew within half a minute they'd found their composer.

Working on a tight budget, Beltrami used small ensembles in place of a full orchestra, and the tension comes from that closeness. "The Cue From Hell" runs over ten minutes, tracking Casey's mounting fear through that famous opening phone call; "Trouble In Woodsboro" adds techno pulses, synths and industrial effects; and "They're Crazy" stretches out to nearly ten minutes before the "End Credits," while shorter cues like "Chasing Sidney," "Bathroom" and "Tatum's Torture" keep the nerves jangling.

Beltrami went on to score the next three Scream films and earn Oscar nominations for The Hurt Locker and 3:10 to Yuma. Our advice is to answer the phone before you put this on, not after.

Also at Kops: more Marco Beltrami on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Varèse Sarabande / Craft Recordings (cat# VSD01085), a reissue of the 1996 soundtrack.