Soundtracks - Fright Night (1985)

The other night I decided that I wanted to do a soundtrack post and I haven’t done one in a long time. I figured that I would do a short little analysis of a score that I fell in love with when I first heard it. It was the score to Fright Night composed by Brad Fiedel. On first hearing, this score isn’t really that scary nor is it really that imposing but if you look at the movie… the movie isn’t pure horror either. However, I will say that it is definitely an 80s sounding score considering the synthesizers and the use of the saxophone, something most scores don’t really have nowadays.

The score starts off slow and builds up to the climax before it slows down again until the end. The movie is very sexual and I think the score really adds to the sexuality of the movie in it’s pacing. As it starts off slow, you can think of it as a slow build up to, or foreplay, sex. As it progresses we begin to hear wind instruments adding a more primitive tone to the movie, as though this is the point where things become more animalistic so to speak. When it climaxes it can be referencing the climactic point in having sex. Throughout the score the saxophone really adds to the eroticism.

But I still find this score, as loud as it can be, very soft and very slow. As sexual as the score is (and how close to sounding as if it was a porno soundtrack) it’s still very eerie and very foreboding. It really gives you the feeling of being stalked or lulled into a false sense of sexual ecstasy. It’s haunting and very controlling at the same time. It matches perfectly to tone of the movie.

Below, I have provided a YouTube video of the theme to Fright Night. I have the theme on my computer but Blogger video isn’t working right so I can’t give you a clearer version of the song.