Search - Ennio Morricone :: The Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The complete score and it is brilliant.

Chadwick H. Saxelid | Concord, CA United States | 10/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ennio Morricone made a few disgruntled comments about Carpenter's use of his score in The Thing. Mainly he was disappointed that Carpenter, after publicly stating he wanted a European sound to the music, simply used the music that sounded most like his own compositions. Further insult was added when Carpenter created several cues to mix in with Morricone's (even as a youngster I could clearly recognize Carpenter's work when I heard it in the film on its opening weekend).Despite that, like the soundtrack for Dawn of the Dead, this soundtrack release contains all the music Morricone composed for the film and none of Carpenter's work. How well some of the tracks would have fit into the film, and where, is anybody's guess.Morricone's score is, in the end, a superb effort that captures the tone and mood of the film beautifully and achieves the same level of excellence as Goldmsith's score for Alien and Williams's score for Jaws. An essential soundtrack in any library."

The Sounds...of Silence

Dark Mechanicus JSG | Fortified Bunker, USSA | 12/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ennio Morricone, composer of this soundtrack to John Carpenter's masterpiece of interstellar horror and creeping paranoia "The Thing", understands his craft: grasps almost intuitively, instinctively, that the most powerful music is painted on a palette of Silence.



His work is painted against a backdrop of the inaudible Howl of the Lonely Spaces, of the Wilding Lands, of the Frigid North or the forsaken South, and his soundtrack to "The Thing" is no exception.



There is this kind of keening flatline sound at the outset of one of the primary themes, the sort of noise that reminds me of camping in the high desert, or in the wild, cold, desolate spaces of Alaska. The sound of absolute, primal stillness.



The kind of stillness where a restless, aggressive, ancient Evil can work its will.



Morricone has always had a fevered, impulsive command and flair with a sort of music, atonal and melodic, that captures and calls up the loneliness of the wild, untamed spaces: whether he was dealing with the vast stretches of sixgun-tamed badlands in the American West in the Man with No Name trilogy, or the yawning gulfs of Antarctic loneliness that encompass the doomed research station---and ultimately serve as a springboard for global invasion---of "The Thing".



The supreme compliment to Morricone is that the score to "The Thing" serves as a character in itself, hinting at alien atrocities as yet unveiled: it is absolutely impossible to think of the movie without conjuring up snippets of the score, which evokes the stark, icy isolation of the Antarctic, underscores the fearful loneliness and crawling paranoia of the men at the base, and exudes a palpable sense of mystery and deep malice.



Morricone has borrowed extensively from the sere and barren stillness of the Earth's high places and wind-blistered expanses, and this rich treasure trove has infused his work---particularly this score---with a kind of barren, forlorn wildness.



Music of the Spheres---certainly not. Music of the Silent Spaces? Most definitely.



JSG"

A great album to play on a stormy night with the lights out!

Chadwick H. Saxelid | 08/19/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To my mind, John Carpenter's "The Thing" would have to be one of the most misunderstood movies to have come out of the Eighties. Critics panned it mercilessly for relying far too much on special effects and for being "not very scary". They had only to listen to the music soundtrack to instantly understand what the director had in mind. The movie's central theme is not one of horror per se, but about creeping paranoia and how it affects each character as one by one they fall victim to "The Thing". Morricone's score brings that out beautifully. Each track is composed to fit in perfectly with the movie's scenes, from the beginning, "Humanity (Part 1), to the final "Despair" where all hope is lost and the two surviving characters wait to die. If you're into horror movie soundtracks this CD is really a must."