Saturday, April 25, 2009

Book Excerpt of the Day

“While there’s no mistaking this eerie, angular, tension-mounting score [The Thing from Another World] for anything other than a sci-fi/horror spine-tingler, it’s interesting how its harsh, brassy character mirrors the story’s militaristic leanings. In the film, the military runs roughshod over the empirical curiosity of the film’s scientists to destroy the alien invader. In that sense [Dimitri] Tiomkin’s busy, hot-blooded score is perfectly suited to the conservative socio-political undercurrent of the story, while its use of theremin serves as a convenient aural metaphor for the alien threat hanging over mankind…”

– from Chapter 5: Sci-Fidelity & the Superhero Spectrum of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

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