Salem's Lot

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About Salem's Lot

Amazon.com Scarcely three decades old, the enduring appeal of novelist Stephen King's horror oeuvre has already begun to foster remakes of the films and TV productions already based on his most popular works. This cable TV redux of King's 1975 tale of a small hamlet beset by vampires features an ominous, brooding orchestral and choral score that's a winning collaboration between newcomer Christopher Gordon and former Dead Can Dance mainstay cum film scorer Lisa Gerrard. The gothic seasoning she imparted to her previous collaborations with Hans Zimmer (most notably Gladiator) comes to the forefront on this score's haunting title aria (composed by Gerrard and partner Patrick Cassidy) and tracks like "Bloody Pirates" and "Free in Spirit." But it's the music of newcomer Gordon ( Master and Commander) whose sheer scale and ambition belie the small screen format it was written for at nearly every turn. While the individual musical elements that Gordon uses to evoke suspense and horror may be familiar (spanning everything from jarring passages of 20th century modernism that evoke a feverish jam session between Ligeti and Penderecki to dashes of minimalism and spare, haunting passages for piano) the innovative ways in which he combines them make this a score a horror-score lover's creepy delight. --Jerry McCulley