Restored Isolated Score: POLTERGEIST

[Holko 10,405]

Spooky season is here, I saw the movie not too long ago and got the FSM a week ago so why the hell not?

 

Thanks to http://www.poltergeist.poltergeistiii.com for the script excerpts.

 

 

1m1 The Star-Spangled Banner - Couldn't leave this wonderful iconic/ironic opening source cue out.

 

 

 

1m2 The Calling - Goldsmith starts the first cue as Carol-Anne is left alone, the camera moves in on her and she wakes up. Initially nearly every shot is emphasised and the unsettling nature of the cue shifts a lot - for example while initially it floats on high strings, when we cut to the living room lit by the unseen flickering TV, it's suddenly grounded with low rumbling, which turns to bass figures at the next cut.

1m1A/1m2A Cuesta Verde (Main Title) - The cue picks up nearly seamlessly with a very different mood, establishing the town as a peaceful place, moving to playful joy when we get closer. The final film removes the opening deconds that overlap with 1m2's ending.

 

 

 

1M5/2M1 The Tree - Two distinctly different soundscapes clash: ominous woody textures for Robbie and the tree and gorgeous lush treatements of Carol Anne's theme for Tweety's funeral. The cue went completely unused and while it still fits perfectly, I can kind of see why, in such a deliberately spotted film I'm not sure why this moment was picked to be scored and what was really meant to be achieved with this cue overall, maybe just giving the tree more explicit foreshadowing maybe and taking any opportunity to score more of Carol-Anne - maybe I could see it having more purpose if the fun foreshadowing with Tweety's coffin being excavated for the pool was also scored, calling back to this cue?

 

 

 

2m3 The Clown - Distinct moods again for the three parts of the scene - uneasy for the so far unseen threat, crazy with some jumps for the terrifying clown, then some still uneasy but driven music for Robbie's brave solution.

 

 

 

3m2 They're Here - After a reprise of techniques from 1m2, things finally get real and the brass joins the fun, emphasising the ghostly hand appearing, searching around, then blasting into the wall. The final film shortens the room shaking by a bit (originall glass was breaking for example), I had to loop some shots to cover that.

 

 

 

3m3 Broken Glass - Another unused cue, though I think this fits better than The Tree, emphasising the strange happenings and tying Carol-Anne to the static again with her theme similarly to other cues.

 

 

 

3m4/4m1 The Hole - Another unused cue - not sure about the sync here especially since the booklet mentions this scene has been shortened.

 

 

 

4m2 TV People - Basically a more confident reprise of 3m3 - while that one seems to suggest "*is something strange going on?", this one suggests "okay, at least we're not completely crazy - but something weird is going on". (Brilliant transition at the end of this scene to suggest the soulless copypaste nature of this suburban hellhole, it absolutely got me the first time, thinking they moved out!)

 

 

 

4m3/5m1 The Closet - The tree's woody sounds quickly give way to low brass as it comes alive, then brass-heavy action alternates with strings+choir for Carol-Anne and the closet portal. The mood distinctly switches to desperate action after the tree is dispatched, but choir still sticks around to signify the TV and Carol-Anne. The film loops the opening, it was pretty hard to find a way to reedit it so the strings match the lightning as the booklet says they were meant to. It also dials out the statement of Carol-Anne's theme at the end turning from relief to horror without actually changing anything. I also had to just barely shorten it at one point and loop it twice.

 

 

 

6m1 The Jewelry - Now we're moving into the part of the score which IMO is its greatest strength - conveying events in the unseen dimension almost purely through music, mostly scoring dialogue. The cue starts with the general uneasy mood and unsure Carol-Anne themes, then moves into a more anticipatory mood when the dog starts signalling, finally ending up on a warm Carol-Anne as she responds. The theme seems to finish without problem... until an ominous motif interrupts it, helping the family warn her away from the light. The motif for the portal enters and is followed by a fun 50s theremin scifi throwback for the items that appeared out of thin air. The mood turns ominous again for the Beast closing in on her, then after a wonderful moment where she passes through Diane, her theme returns again playing happily, but once again is capped by a wild coda removed from the final film.

 

 

 

7m1 The Light - The optimistic theme for the Light is introduced for this explanation about the afterlife.

 

 

 

7m2/8m1 Instant Replay - Marty's visions are scored with building craziness, played off by a Beast theme that's removed in the film. The apparitions on the stair get a new theme, "lost souls", then they disappear in flashes to some action music. The scene is represented again in a shortened form for the instant replac, the Lost Souls theme this time leading to an unused Beast statement. For the ending, the cue ominously extends the Beast's theme to the entire suburban setting. Because of all the missing footage and complex history this wasn't an easy cue to work on, in the end I just synced the footage up so the final film edit of the cue matches, fully aware that this might not be correct.

 

 

 

8m2 No Complaints - The Lost Souls theme foreshadows what we don't explicitly know yet (that the relocated cemetery doesn't actually have the bodies), and agan casts a dark light over the entire neighborhood.

 

 

 

9m1/10m1 Let's Get Her - And so begins perhaps the biggest highlight setpiece, employing nearly every theme to move us through many moods for what are once again dialogue scenes suggesting completely unseen things and events. I had to extend the footage just a little bit at the switch from monologue to preparations.

10m1 Pt. 2 Rebirth - Mostly based around statements fo the Light theme at key points (also note the portal motif for the tennis balls and rope passing through it), the cue brilliantly gives religious weight to this climactic scene, resolving it very satisfyingly with Carol-Anne's theme. I had to extend the cue here and there, but didn't want to keep looping the same shots over and over for the Beast's face.

 

 

 

11m1X - This unused "extension" perhaps makes the ominousness of the scene a bit too on the nose.

 

 

 

11m1 The Clown Attacks - With its back and forth of horror action and supernatural choir, this cue is somewhat of a calback to 4m3/5m1 The Closet. I had to stretch/loop the footage in multiple places. There was an alternate version shot in Diane's room with the hole in the wall expanding, but only a few images are available (see the fan site I mentioned at the start).

 

 

 

11m2/12m1 The Caskets - For the final total pandemonium, Goldsmith mostly opts for all-out athematic spooky action, finally finishing with the suburbia setting of the Beast theme to play off the madness. The film dials out the opening bubbling brass and of course considerably edits down the scene/cue.

 

 

 

12m2 No TV - This unused cue uses the Lost Souls theme to comment on the family's situation, but perhaps makes for too low of a note to end on. Not sure about the sync at all so I just assumed Mike's way of joining it with the credits was correct.

12m2A End Credits - Finally a wonderful full rendition of Carol-Anne's theme. The film dials out the opening vocals, only bringing them in on the first B part.

 

 

 

1m2 The Calling (alternate) - The main difference here is the presence of many woodwind figures.

 

 

 

11m2/12m1 The Caskets (alternate) - This cue is a fascinating insight into how many small things can get refined over new takes - ostinatos tightened up/extended, instrumentations slightly changed or cleaned up. Of particular note are the more melodic and simplistic string effects for the skeletons' first appearance, the richer sound when Diane slides back into the water, the more piercing wind shriek in the middle of the stretching corridor shots and the far less driven feeling percussion at the end of it, and the section when Dana arrives which here doesn't have much of a building progression to it.

[Jay 39,768]

Wow! Awesome! Can't wait to check this out!

[Marian Schedenig 9,157]

On 31/10/2024 at 4:09 PM, Holko said:

Spooky season is here, I saw the movie not too long ago and got the FSM a week ago so why the hell not?

 

This is amazing, thank you. I've long been saying that there's hardly a film more deserving of an iso score treatment. It's one of Goldsmith's most narrative and lengthy scores (as in: a Spielberg score), and so much of it was dialled out of the film.