John Carpenter’s Halloween theme is probably one of the most recognizable themes in horror cinema and in a new clip shared by AV Club from the special features on Halloween’s upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release we learn a bit more about the song’s origins.
It turns out that the idea for the Halloween main theme came from Carpenter’s father. Carpenter’s father had taught him 5/4 time signature, a more obscure time signature in music, and with that Carpenter began to riff on the piano. That riff would ultimately become the foundation for the Halloween theme.
For the 2018 reboot of Halloween Carpenter along with his son Cody and collaborator Daniel Davies built upon that riff and the original 1978 score to make it as scary as possible while still paying homage to the original film’s score.
You can see the full clip from AV Club below:
