- Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:46 pm
#104812
ScoJo wrote:Well, the seller gave me the runaround for a while (took over a month to post!) but I'm finally thrilled to have this back in my collection, and another (N mint) Varese Original crossed off the wantslist for a very reasonable £20 - seems to have dropped in price by half since the bells n' whistles WW re-issue.This is probably my favorite Manfredini score, i picked this up about two years ago and i'm planning on giving in a comparison listen with the waxwork reissue. The HOUSE series is so strange, the first one is really a great little ghost story with some really unsettling effects, and the line between camp and horror really puts it right into the "EC Horror" wheelhouse. the second film is kinda fun but also goofy to a fault, and i have a hard time really enjoying it for the most part. the third one isn't really a third one at all (although i guess you could say the same about part 2) and the fourth...well...Anyone who has seen it knows...that pizza..i mean.
Chatting with @static last night, was saying how much I loved the first movie (second not so much at the time, but I'll give it another watch soon) and this is easily my favourite of Manfredini's horror scores. Highly effective, disctinctive, varied, flavourful - love those low cello notes that open proceedings (reminds me of Reanimator quite a bit) and glorious 80s synth stabs, but then with House but even more so in House II, an almost cartoon-ey scoring style which really reminds me of Scott Bradley's MGM work.
All in all it hits all my nostalgia nerves, tingles my spine, tickles my funny bone and gooses my gander... I frickin' love this score!
Lastly - just more praise for these VS original pressings. This one is 40 years old y'all, and the Near Mint copy which I received surely sounds as fresh and full as the day it was born. I am constantly blown away by the quality of their records, and will undoubtedly be a Fan for Life.
I have been in this business a long time. Now if I don't want to do a show, it's not because I got stage fright. It's because some creature from beyond doesn't want me to do the show. Now gangway.




