The Empire Pictures Sound

Before starting Full Moon Entertainment, Charles Band and company spent most of the '80s releasing horror and sci-fi titles under the banner of Empire Pictures. Most people remember them for Stuart Gordon classics like Re-Animator and From Beyond, but the rest of their fare is pretty unusual as well. Here we celebrate two lesser-known, very different scores from the golden Empire year of 1986, Richard Band's Troll (the one where Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus becomes a wood nymph and Sonny Bono turns into a tree) and Pino Donaggio's Crawlspace (with Klaus Kinski as a crazy ex-Nazi who stalks women in his boarding house).

The Band score is an atmospheric, choir-heavy piece divided into five parts -- or as the cover label puts it, "Utilizing elements of avant garde Euro-progressive rock and haunting musical themes, Richard Band's evocative electronic and orchstral score for Troll is superb. Accented by otherworldly choral sections, the overall work takes on the ambiance of the classic Fantasia. At times serene and poignant and at other times simply unsettling, this is a work for fans of Tangerine Dream, Magma, Il Balleto di Bronzo and the like." Got that? [NOTE: link now removed as this has been commercially released.]

On the other hand, the Donaggio score is pure horror all the way, with a heavy emphasis on synths and a haunting main theme that really comes to fruition in the standout final track, "Martha's Lament / End Titles" (whose Hebrew lyrics are a memory of the horrors at Auschwitz). Incidentally, this was the second of Donaggio's three collaborations with David Schmoeller, also including Tourist Trap and Catacombs.