John Carpenter’s soundtracks for the most recent Halloween trilogy, made alongside his frequent collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, marked the legendary director and composer’s return to film scoring after nearly two decades away. 2018’s Halloween, 2021’s Halloween Kills, and 2022’s Halloween Ends were all directed by David Gordon Green, who engaged Carpenter early in the pre-production process, ultimately enlisting him as both an executive producer and soundtrack composer for the trilogy. Now, for the first time, a deluxe, 2xLP expanded edition of the Halloween Kills score is being made available by Carpenter’s longtime label, Sacred Bones Records.
2018’s Halloween was a hit beyond the wildest dreams of anyone involved. It opened to the biggest box office gross in Blumhouse’s history at the time, and the biggest in the history of the Halloween franchise. It was inevitable that a pair of sequels, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, would soon be greenlit. Green signed on to direct both, but he didn’t want to assume that John, Cody, and Daniel would return to do the scores.
“I don’t ever take anything for granted,” he says. “So you hope they had a good experience. I know we had fun on the project, but you never know people’s time and financial interests and all these things. The realities of dealmaking, moviemaking, don’t always slide in so smoothly. But there wasn’t a hiccup. We looked at each other and said, ‘How do we make this work? Let’s do it again.’ Twice.”
The expanded version of Halloween Kills includes 25 never-before-released cues, and it comes packaged with all-new artwork by Chris Bilheimer and an exclusive 24x36” poster designed by Creepy Duck. Expanded versions of Halloween and Halloween Ends scores, as well as a box set collecting all three expanded editions, will also be available from Sacred Bones on the same release date.