The Music of JASON X Part Two

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2002

With the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise heading into the future with the latest installment, JASON X, opening later this month, it has fallen to the series' original composer, Harry Manfredini, to score the new tale of "Jason in Space." Today, we continue our chat with the man who created the signature music of old hockey mask-face himself.



Manfredini's space music for JASON X started out very STAR WARS like, until director James Isaac asked him to tone that element down a bit. "The sound is still there, but it's not as grandiose as it could be," says Manfredini. "I think that this change was really more in line with this particular film. There is also more of a gothic element added to the score. There's even some sort of metallic 12-tone material. There are a lot of new elements in this particular score in keeping with the film's new approach, but I've used many of the old reliable elements as well." Manfredini emphasized more brass and percussion, and less strings, in this score than in previous FRIDAY scores.

Another concept is, for the first time, merging seemingly disparate elements of slasher horror and science fiction, and deciding how much of the film and the score is horror, and how much is science fiction. "My first reaction is that this is not really that much of a horror film," Manfredini says. "This may not sit well with the 'fans,' but the film is more than horror. It has elements of action/adventure and has a gothic quality about it. It is much funnier and more entertaining than any of the other sequels. There is an interesting use of comedy that plays off the 'fish out of water' or perhaps better put 'fish in the future' elements of the plot. The audience is in on the jokes, while the characters are not aware. There is some meshing of styles, but not as much as you might think."


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One of Manfredini's biggest challenges in scoring JASON X was in congealing the various musical styles and sensibilities needed by the picture into a cohesive harmonious whole. "There are numerous styles and techniques used, and yet they had to all be somehow connected and unified into one piece of cloth," he says.

The JASON franchise has held its own for twenty years now. With many sequels seeming to be carbon copies of their predecessors, it hasn't always been easy for Manfredini to come up with new ideas to keep the music sounding fresh. The brand new setting and time period of JASON X came as a most welcome change. "The ideas for the previous incarnations of the film always seemed to have little effect on the essence of the music," says Manfredini. "The basic tension-stalk-kill, or tension-stalk-red herring was the standard order of the day. Things started to change with JASON GOES TO HELL. But this film is quite different, even though some of these elements play a role."

Since completing JASON X, Manfredini scored a new picture for Sean Cunningham called EXTREME CLOSE-UP as well as Kevin Tenney's ENDANGERED SPECIES.



Horror films have been good to Harry Manfredini. While he has had opportunities to score other types of films, a continual return to the horror genre with the FRIDAY franchise and numerous other films has given the composer opportunities to engage his musical creativity in ways not usually afforded by mainstream movies.

"I can honestly say that the FRIDAY, and not so much the HOUSE series, has been a bit of a double-edged sword," Manfredini says. "There is a certain 'curse' that goes along with the success of these films and it is a difficult thing to escape. But I just keep on going. I do the pictures that I am assigned and give all that I have to them. From the time I was young, all I ever wanted to do was to write film music, and that's what I do."

"Most film composers have an interest in the horror and fantastic genre because these types have generated some of the greatest film music. The interest in these kinds of films stems from the fact that they allow the composer to 'stretch out' musically and create to his heart's content. Furthermore, the horror and fantastic filmmakers are well aware of the importance of music in these films and are therefore anxious to get a composer who can deliver the score they desire."