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Baker's Dozen

Spencer Hickman Of Death Waltz Records’ Favourite Horror Soundtracks
Spencer Hickman , October 31st, 2013 05:37

Spencer Hickman founded and runs Death Waltz Records, a label that puts out classic and obscure horror soundtracks in mouthwatering vinyl reissue packages. In a Baker’s Dozen Halloween Special, he chooses his favourite OSTs for us

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Cannibal Holocaust - Director: Ruggero Deodato, Soundtrack: Riz Ortolani
I remember thinking this soundtrack was odd. If you listen to it independently of the film, it’s obviously an astoundingly brilliant piece of music with this weird mix of orchestral and electronics. I don’t know what Riz was smoking when he came up with this (or why Deodato let him do what he did) but I’d quite like some of it. It’s a really odd, difficult film to watch and I think the soundtrack tempers some of that. So I actually think that if you’d had a proper full on crazy horror score with all the stabs it would have been too hard to watch. Because it is so fucking brutal I think the soundtrack makes the film more bearable. I bunked off school to watch it. Back then you could hire whatever you wanted from the video shop. We wagged school and watched Last House On The Left and Cannibal Holocaust. Fucking boom. 14 years old. A life changing afternoon. It is unpleasant and I don’t know if I really liked it when I was young. There are so many ways that this film can offend you but the woman impaled on the stake is just… horrible. It’s an important film though. It’s probably the first found footage film. All of that genre owes Cannibal Holocaust everything.