Customer Reviews

Night Stalker & Other Classic Thrillers

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4 star:		(3)
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Finally, and it took Varese Sarabande to come up with this awesome compilation of "great spook-music" from composer Robert Cobert - "The Night Stalker and Other Classic Thrillers", who composed, conducted and orchestrated suspense thrillers over the past 35 years. Dating back to 1966 for producer Dan Curtis, "DARK SHADOWS", the Gothic soap an instant hit.

Cobert's the master of creating supernatural, imaginative and fright for the small tube, his music paints the mood for every cue, the writer and producer require...and then some.

Our composer believed that his penchant for using vibraphone and percussion as suspense-generating devices originated with the "DEAD OF NIGHT" score, resurfaced for "DARK SHADOWS. Interestly, the music Cobert composed for "THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE", one of the themes - later became the famous "QUENTIN'S THEME" (Dark Shadows), simply haunting.

The highlight: "DRACULA", starring Jack Palance, we hear the love theme, the kind a music box might have played, and Cobert scores it in the same manner, with a Romanian accent.

Varese and Robert Cobert, give the listener what they crave...the music that never fails to meet "movie-music collectors" criteria!

Total Time: 76:42 on 10 Tracks...Varese Sarabande-066156...(2000)

Simple translation to some earlier reviews of this cd compilation: Music to create a definite 'spine-tingling' mood to the surroundings. Listening to this music gives way to all those eerie childhood feelings you may have felt while watching a late night horror movie. You will hear the many instruments played in sychronized rythym subliminally, but the theme communicated will sink you deep into your chair, looking for the nearest pillow or blanket to hide under. Not to be mistaken, this cd is a very adult worthy piece, but will entertain all ages.

In all my years, I have never liked horror movies as much as I have liked the ones by director/producer Dan Curtis. WHY? Because of the music by Robert Cobert. The movies them selves were scary enough with its eerie plots and frightening endings. But the music and the timing of that music when it was played during certain scenes made it that more, well in the words of what Carl Kolchak would probably say " terrifying ". This CD takes me back to my pre-teen- teen years, when I watch those movies and needless to say slept with a nite-lite on afterwards.
This is a must for Dark Shadows and Night Stalker fans! There's just one thing wrong! There were two other Dan Curtis movies that the music by Robert Cobert made them that more scary, and are not on this CD that should be and that is "The Norlis Tapes" and "Scream of the Wolf". OOOOPS!

First off I would like to say that this really does bring back a lot of fond memories from when I was a child watching''Strange Case of Dr.Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde on ABC.I remember ''Night Stalker'' and Trilogy of Terror''and most recently Bob Cobert's music from the 1991 ''Dark Shadows''His music stands alone as well as any other music composer.Whether or not a person may have liked ''Winds of War and War and Remembrance'' really doesn't matter because Mr. Cobert proves that he still can entertain his audiences.He truly is a gifted and magnificent composer.

This CD takes me back to my college days. Watching The Night Stalker in 1972 was just unbelievable for a TV movie. What gave it the edge was the score. It gave life to Kolchak, Janos the vampire, and the entire movie. There's a lot of nail screeching music here. The other tracs are good too. The Night Strangler, Dracula, Dark Shadows ad Trilogy of Terror. ( Watch out for the Zuni Doll!) . Play this with the lights out.

Robert Cobert's evocative music scores were one of the few elements to last throughout the entire Dark Shadows run, and his contribution to the style of the series as it emerged should not be underestimated. Varese Sarabande's compilation The Night Stalker and Other Classic Thrillers offers a rare opportunity to enjoy music from his many collaborations with Dan Curtis, and gives a unique chronological insight into his developing craft as a composer. Arranged in individual suites for each production, they make for fascinating listening.

Arguably, it is Cobert's score for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde that most defined the Dark Shadows style, a missing link between the formal themes heard in the show's earliest episodes and the florid melodrama of its later days. Many of these cues were inherited and re-scored for Dark Shadows, and it's fascinating hearing their earlier, embryonic versions. A wonderful mix of strident intrigue and gothic fantasy, they offer drama and mood with confidence and verge, particularly in the overwrought strings and brass elements.

Dead of Night: A Darkness at Blaisedon offered more donations to the Dark Shadows library, with a more freeform, ambient quality than the formal character themes in Jekyll offer. Starkly performed on percussion, the results are abstract and unsettling, cues fading into one another, particularly with the eerie, yesteryears otherworldliness of the vibraphone element.

The Night Stalker shows a quirkier, more offbeat side to Cobert's work, with its affectionately humorous theme, which juxtaposes the most doom-laden Night of Dark Shadows movie cues with upbeat jazzy riffs and drums. The effect is wonderful, playing even the grimmest horror with an affectionate wink at the audience. The contrast is a minor revelation. It's post-modern, witty, with a healthy sense of the limitations of the horror format. The accompanying Night Strangler suite plays things slightly straighter, arguably to lesser effect, though offers some hilariously twangy 1970s kitsch along the way, all lilting saxophones and slinky basslines. The stark oboe that informs so many of Cobert's horror themes also seems to be refined here for the first time.

By comparison, Dracula is as classic and formal as Cobert gets, with an elegance and operatic quality that he rarely equals elsewhere. Richly orchestrated, it's unashamedly cinematic, painting rich moods on big canvasses. Freed of the cue-based limitations of his television work, we are offered a more sustained score than usual, with themes running into one another, developing and modulating as the drama unfolds. Dracula's Love Theme is particularly memorable, developing from twee chimes into pure orchestral fairy tale.

Trilogy of Terror is loungy and sedate in places by comparison. The opening, in particular has a demure elegance that makes for great contrast with the foreboding attack themes that follow. All pounding strings and violent, clipped violin notes, it's played on pure adrenaline and terror, dizzying strings and an ever increasing pace drawing the listener in along the way. There's some wonderful playful asides in form that keep it fresh and surprisingly, particularly pairing the taunting percussion with a lilting brass and woodwind element.

Burnt Offerings is another ambient experiment, with Cobert's resonantly formal themes battling against a freeform element that neatly underscores the film's themes of possession and corruption. A strong woodwind presence gives the music a wistful, timeless quality, with an ethereal disorientating edge. Typically foreboding strings and brass are used in unexpected places to unsettling effect.

Dead of Night is a more mystical experience than the other themes, lacking the terror and fear of the other tracks. Its restrained, elegant exploration of the supernatural has a charm and wistful nature that its echoing chimes and soft woodwind motifs pick up beautifully in places.

The Curse of Black Widow is contemporary and playful, revisiting the Night Stalker work, particularly with its bombastic opening theme, which segues almost absurdly into careworn treacly warmth. The terror elements are mostly played straight and claustrophobic, with an amusing wrinkle from the spider-like scuttling of the percussion sounds.

Of special interest to Dark Shadows fans will be the suite of music from the 1991 Dark Shadows revival series, comprising the opening theme, the classic Collinwood voice-over theme and a selection of incidental cues from its final episode. Here Cobert breaks from his usual style, combining synthesisers with traditional orchestral elements, with mixed results. While the collaboration offers the work a slightly unsettling undertone, and a nice subliminal foreboding and ambience, the artificial instruments sound somewhat flat and crude by comparison, especially when paired directly with authentic orchestration. However, the overall suite is excellent, with a remote richness and transcendent quality that evokes the strongest elements of the Dark Shadows format, particularly in the excellent Love Theme, picked out in rich, resonant strings.

One might have expected a CD of horror themes to fall into repetition, and indeed a lot of reused devices become apparent. Yet, each production has a definite character and charts a definite development in Cobert's style. It's genuinely fascinating hearing earlier experiments revisited, developed and replaced, and the impact the music retains is not to be underestimated. Cobert's talent for mood and dramatic punctuation provided many Dan Curtis productions with their finest moments, and this collection brings together some of the very best.

If you,like me,loved those Dan Curtis terror tv classics since his original Dark Shadows soap back in the 60s will probably love
this collection by Bob Cobert.He composed all the spooky music in those macabre shows.This is great stuff!You know who you are.........

'The Nightstalker and Other Classic Thrillers' features suites compiled from Robert Cobert soundtracks for Dan Curtis horror productions--mostly for TV.

Cobert's music is heads and shoulders above most TV music, but much of it *is* just there to create a mood rather than to be melodic, hence only Four Stars. (I prefer soundtrack albums that stand on their own.) That said, I still highly recommend this disc to fans of horror movie music.

That said, there is plenty of fantastic music here. For me, the standout selection is the "Dracula Suite." It's music that is both spooky and romantic and one of the best musical portraits of the Dracula character ever created; James Bernard was always a bit too consistently bombastic for me, and as fond as I am of John Williams' 'Dracula' score, it's better as a stand-alone work than an embodiment of the Dracula story. (All in all, the Dan Curtis 'Dracula' is a tremendously underrated effort in all respects... Jack Palance did a fabulous job in the flick!) This suite is almost worth the price of the album alone, and it was actually the primary reason for my purchasing it.

Other excellent tracks are the quirky, psuedo-jazz music from the Kolchack features "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler."

The "Burnt Offerings Suite" is also fabulous music--and it reminded me quite a bit about the aforementioned James Bernard's efforts for Hammer's films.

And, of course, the suite that many will probably be attracted to this collection for--the selections from the 1991 revival of "Dark Shadows." Personally, none of the Dark Shadows themes have really ever struck any particular chord with me--I think by the time I became aware of them, they'd been copied and spoofed so much they sound hokey to me-- but I had to admit that the material here is both melodic and evocative.

This CD was LOOOONG overdue. I have always wanted a collection of the wonderful music of Robert Cobert. My only complaint about this compilation CD is that it is just that: a compilation. I want more than there is to offer here. I hope that a second volume is in the works.

If you're a fan of these movies, particularly TRILOGY OF TERROR and BURNT OFFERINGS, this CD is a must-have. I have always wanted a complete soundtrack album to BURNT OFFERINGS, though to my knowledge no such album exists. This CD contains five tracks from this film, though disappointingly, not the incredibly eerie main title music that is the film's theme. Please, Mr. Cobert, please release this in the future!

What is here, though, is truly wonderful. TRILOGY OF TERROR, one of the scariest TV-movies ever made, is part of the package. THE NIGHT STALKER is also wonderful.

I would recommend this CD even if you are not a fan of the Dan Curtis/Robert Cobert team for the simple fact that they created some truly wonderful television and film concoctions in the '70's, and their work together is truly original and unique. It is impossible to mistake anyone else's music for Robert Cobert's, as this composer has a wonderful style all his own. It is truly a representation of a wonderful, bygone era in fantastic filmmaking.