James Horner's entry is perhaps most surprising because of its originality, based entirely on a witty pizzicato string backdrop, with other instruments added to ratchet up the tension. Several of the episodes have surprisingly cheerful moments and Loved to Death is almost entirely upbeat, with a sax line that could probably work as porn music. Of the other famous entries, Bruce Broughton's is actually a bit uninteresting and is rather anonymous synthetic creeping around music, only becoming interesting at the close, while David Newman's sounds like a synth demo from one of his Bill & Ted scores and Ry Cooder's is, perhaps unsurprisingly, led by twanging guitar for one of the most laid back excerpts.
Most, if not all, of the music is synthesised, but more often than not is simply a stand in for acoustic instruments. However, given the generally sparse orchestrations, this doesn't present a great problem. Featuring only a few minutes from each score is both an asset and a hindrance, the former because most TV music isn't worth presenting in much more than a brief sample, but the latter (especially in this case) because there is no overall mood or musical evolution. You might expect a gothic creepiness throughout, but clearly some of the music was cheerful - maybe for ironic effect? Maybe it's wrong to view it as a soundtrack album as it's essentially a compilation of highlights, but most of the highlights are worth hearing and fans of the show will love it.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 49:32
Tales from the Crypt was one of those shows that managed to attract quite a number of big names in film music to come in and score various episodes. It's not that unusual to have a film composer pen the theme tune to a big budget show, but to have so many come and write for the occasional episode must have been the result of some very persuasive producers. The reasonably well known theme is by Danny Elfman with plenty of scope to ham it up in true gothic horror style, mixing harpsichords, organ, ghostly chorus and a prototypical spooky Elfman tune, even if the two and a half minute version here does outstay its welcome by the end. Don't be too fooled by the famous and not so famous composers on parade here, plenty of the scores from the almost totally unknown are just as good as those by the big names, even if things don't start that promisingly with Jan Hammer's distinctly cheesy, 80's styled pop score for Three's a Crowd. Think Baywatch with ghosts.
