Leatherface CD Cover
© N/A
Leatherface score released
By: Randall LarsonDate: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Nicely coinciding with last week’s release of the DVD version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, with TCM Terror well on the roll, Perseverance Records has release their first CD in their new Limited Composers Series. Jim Manzie's frighteningly chilly score for Jeff Burr’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: Leatherface, is now available.
The film was one of Burr’s first assignments after The Offspring and Stepfather II (he went on to helm a couple Puppetmaster and Pumpkinhead films, among many others), but budgetary restrictions led to a disappointing final cut, according to the director. “The script had to be cut down logistically because of the production’s budget,” he states in the CD’s notes. “Concepts and notions that were invested in the script to take it a notch above following formula were lost… The theme that suffered the most in this regard is the whole idea that a member of the new family wants to up the technology angle – primitive backwoods culture vs. modern society, steel against bone.”
Composer Jim Manzie adopted a similar minimalistic approach to LEATHERFACE that was accomplished by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell in the first two TCM movies, while constructing a deeper and more strongly-felt musical presence through multiple layers of tonality and ambience. “Minimalism was going to be my occasional approach when appropriate, with sparse, eerie knocking and rattling effects,” Manzie is quoted in the CD booklet. “The composer on TCM 1 unsettled the audience by avoiding melody and relief. I decided to follow his lead, but with a richer and deeper production sound.”
At 72 minutes it is one of Perseverance Records’ longest CDs, which not only features the entire score note for note, but also an in-depth interview with the composer about his experience scoring the film. The album was developed with the participation of the film’s director, Jeff Burr, and is limited to 500 pressings.
Coming up this year from the specialty label is the first-ever release of the unused Chinatown score, presented with a brand new digital re-recording conducted by composer Phillip Lambro. The score is around 28 minutes long, and the CD may also feature an audio interview with Phillip Lambro about his experiences working with Roman Polanski and Robert Evans on this picture. (Lambro composed a complex musical score for the film which was working fine until Evans threw it out at the last minute for undefined reasons. Jerry Goldsmith was called in at the 11th hour and provided his moody, noir-ish score in its place.)
The release date for Chinatown has not been set yet.
