THOM YORKE'S SUSPIRIA SCORE VS GOBLIN'S SUSPIRIA SCORE

Suspiria, the seminal 1977 supernatural horror film about a dance school run by witches, has a remake about to drop like that fire mixtape destined to burn up the charts (of Hollywood). Suspiria comes out October 26th and it looks GOOOOOOOOOOOD. (Yeah, 11 Os). Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino follows up his 2017 Oscar contender Call Me By Your Name with a movie that has the whole horror community (which in the case of We Are: the Guard is me, me and me) buzzing.

Gone are filmmaker Dario Argento’s eccentric color palettes and the legendary score by Italio prog-rock band Goblin. Goblin, if you were to ask me and you are because you’re here right now, might be the pinnacle of horror film composition. Their haunting synth driven songs build a tension and terror unparalleled outside of Jerry Goldsmith’s “Sanguis Bibimus, Corpus Edimus” repeating from The Omen theme “Ave Santini.” Goblin’s Suspira theme is legitimately haunting, with witches whispering in the background, and a building, foreboding synth line that get instantly and permanently stuck in your head. This is the kind of tune that has had 40 years of staying power and is about to have 40 more.

Check out Goblin’s theme and a fan-made trailer to the original film below:

Pretty dope, right? Well, the great news for all of us is that remake looks maybe even possibly doper. And this one comes with an original score by Captain Radiohead himself, Thom Yorke. WHUT? YES, an entire album of new Thom Yorke music accompanying a horror film about witches in a ballet academy? No, you aren’t dreaming, this is real life and it comes out NEXT WEEK.

Listen to the title track here:

I’m legitimately having trouble comparing these two because I am such a super fan of both acts. This is like your parents fighting and having no idea who to side with. I’m sure that most of you are going to side with Thom Yorke because Radiohead’s output is far more significant than anything the Goblin guys have ever managed. Radiohead have literally changed the scape of music as we know it… with just OK Computer alone. But did you listen to how dope Goblin’s score was? I call this one a toss up.

Thom Yorke’s music is VERY different from the original score (would you expect anything less?). The semi-titular track “Suspirium” with quiet piano and Yorke’s otherworldly crooning sounds more like a lost cut from his Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes solo album rather than the titular theme song to a major motion picture. I’m sure that in the film it will carry much more weight than it possibly can in headphones on my computer with no cool visual accompaniment. But does it have the same kind of staying power? I guess we’ll have to see how it’s used to find out.

“Has Ended,” with its distorted vocals and droning drums, feels a lot more like the kind of track that belongs in a horror movie. But is it as listenable? Maybe this is just the limitations of having an icon do your soundtrack. First time scoring, and Jonny Greenwood he ain't. But what do we know? None of us have even seen the movie yet. Who cares! Fuck it! We’ve got new Thom Yorke music and an super exciting remake of one of the greatest horror movies of all time! Who’s complaining? Not me! GIVE ME THE WHOLE THING. I can smell masterpiece across the board like witches cooking children up in a cauldron.

Come on Halloween, bring it on. Let’s all take a field trip to the theatres and see this one together.

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.