What A Good Score! – #40: Stephen King’s “IT” (Soundtrack From The Television Motion Picture) by Richard Bellis

What A Good Score is a new series here at Off The Tracks – looking at movie soundtracks, the good, the band and the astounding…

I’m not sure I can think of many other scores where it’s just an instant return to childhood, and the actual movie in question, as soon as the needle drops. I also don’t have many other scores in my collection that run across triple vinyl, and to which I listen through the whole set every time.

I’m a fan of the TV-movie/mini-series IT — it’s there in my top ten Stephen King adaptations:

And not just for the nostalgia. I love the book, and remember vividly the time when I read it, and then went straight to the TV two-parter, and though I didn’t particularly find the film scary I’ve just always thought of it as an excellent adaptation. It gave me what I needed. In recent years, I’ve rewatched it a couple of times, and I really believe it stands up.

But it was on the rewatch that I really honed in on the score. Right from the opening moments. The music so scene-setting, so accompanying, so guiding:

I know little about Richard Bellis, the composer. This is really his main musical property. He was a child actor, turned composer. Now he’s a cabinet maker. He made some other TV-movie music, but this is the big one. He’d created some music for theme parks and rides, which clearly helped him in the creation of some of the IT themes and vibes.

The other big influence here was one of cinema’s towering score influencers and influences, Bernard Herrmann. And, well, who else to be influenced by, right? Perfect for this story, and this movie too.

The music has become favourite “reading” accompaniment in our house, as Oscar (currently 12) is also heavily nostalgic around this music; the movie his gateway into horror.

And that’s it I think. I’d seen some horrors before IT but it arguably was the proper gateway. The first horror I watched without my hands over my eyes. The first one I properly viewed.

And the music as important as the cues and score to Jaws and Psycho and other early, crucial, classic films.

The 1990 IT mini-series might not quite have the cultural cache of some of horror’s other big-ticket names but its association to King, its source material, and it’s place as one of the things that ushers people in all combine to elevate it. Its musical score is one of the things, in my mind at least, that helps to elevate it.

The first time I rushed to order a triple-vinyl and have it imported at enormous cost. It felt worth it at the time. And I’m glad I did it a few years ago when I was still young and stupid! LOL.

The clown music motif is a gem too. Works every time.