Nightmare On Elm Street

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, SOUNDTRACK SCORE (CD)

Release date: May 10th 2010
Running time: 50:05 minutes

Composer: Steve Jablonsky

Steve Jablonsky has scored for Platinum Dunes with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher and Friday the 13th, but his work on A Nightmare On Elm Street is by far his strongest yet.

The album contains 18 tracks out of which five are truly outstanding and memorable. They set the tone for the movie and give something the original did not have.

The first track, Freddy’s Coming For You, begins with the sound of footsteps, the kind you might hear at night when you’ve woken from sleep to realise someone is not only in the house but is making their way up the stairs and down the corridor to your room. And then your stomach lurches forward with that fear and this is when we hear the first strings. It moves slowly, heavily and inevitably.

The Main Title is a haunting sequence filled with mystery and darkness. It gives a sense of the hopelessness the characters in the movie are about to experience at the hands of a depraved child killer. It pulls you in, awakening a dread and you know you’re new Nightmare territory here. It’s not as playful as Charles Bernstein score for the original 1984 A Nightmare On Elm Street film, gone are the synth bells and pads.

The score was recorded with a 60-piece string ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage. It has a cinematic orchestral sound, beautifully conducted and woven into the film with deep resonating string arrangements, soaring at times. It delivers a rush of adrenalin mixed with dread and knowing that if you are on Elm Street, you are doomed.

I had a chat with Brad Fuller, producer of A Nightmare On Elm Street, and co-owner of Platinum Dunes. I asked him about his choice of composer for the movie:

There’s also an updated version of the chilling song Jump Rope (One, Two, Freddy’s Coming for You…). Based on a popular nursery rhyme first published in London in 1805, this is a thoroughly unnerving and dark take. The original song was written by Bernstein for the original film and has been used throughout the A Nightmare On Elm Street film series so it’s a much welcome homage here to what came before.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

SOUNDTRACK

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