Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Will Release a Cover of John Carpenter’s Halloween Theme Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, in case you do not have access to a calendar, is Friday the 13th. If you’re superstitious, you may be concerned that with the date will come lots of bad shit. So allow me to assure you now that at least one fine, if not outright good, thing will happen tomorrow: the Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (also known for their work with some project called Nine Inch Nails) will release a cover of John Carpenter’s theme for Halloween. The piece is arguably the most iconic horror theme of all time, and inarguably one of the top ten*, the kind of music that is sure to induce goosebumps with just a few recognizable notes. Getting industrial’s perennial Prince of Darkness to cover it makes a lot of sense.

I do have one concern about the track, though — specifically, that it may fall into the trap of not really adding anything new to the music (a thirty-second sample on Amazon doesn’t tell us much, as it’s almost entirely white noise… which I guess you could consider “adding something new to the music,” butttt…). The thing is, Carpenter’s music is brilliantly simple, which makes it reasonably malleable; there’s absolutely no reason Reznor and Ross wouldn’t be able to futz around with it while not sacrificing the terrifying spirit of the original.

We’ll find out if this cover is worth a darn or not tomorrow! In the meantime, here’s the original, and a few variations people have done over the years (in case you doubt my assertion about the piece’s malleability):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLFx30Ijiq0

*Off the top of my head and in no particular order: Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, Suspiria, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Psycho, Jaws, Saw (which just so happens to have been composed by Charlie Clouser, also of Nine Inch Nails fame), and… uh… what am I missing? I love Christopher Young’s score for Hellraiser, but I’m not sure anyone who isn’t a horror buff would recognize it.