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Halloween is a soundtrack album composed and performed by John Carpenter, featuring the score to the 1978 film Halloween. It was released in Japan in 1979 by Columbia Records and in the United States in 1983 in 1983 through Varèse Sarabande. An expanded 20th Anniversary Edition was released in 1998 through Varèse Sarabande. In 2018, an LP was released by Mondo Records featuring the mono tracks taken from the original 35mm stem of the film and for the first time features the music as originally heard in theaters and on the earliest VHS releases of the film.
Lacking a symphonic soundtrack, the film's score consists of a piano melody played in a 10/8 or "complex 5/4" time signature, composed and performed by director Carpenter. He admitted that the music was inspired by Dario Argento's Suspiria (which also influenced the film's slightly surreal color scheme) and William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Carpenter composed the entire soundtrack in just three days. Beyond the film's critical and commercial success, Carpenter's Halloween Theme became recognizable far beyond the movie itself.
Critic James Berardinelli described the soundtrack as "relatively simple and unsophisticated" but acknowledged that "Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets." In an interview, Carpenter confessed, "I can play just about any keyboard, but I can't read or write a note." At the end of the credits, Carpenter humorously credits himself as the "Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra" for the film's soundtrack but received assistance from composer Dan Wyman, a music professor at San Jose State University.
The soundtrack would later play a major role in influencing the synthwave music genre.
Some additional songs are featured in the film, including an untitled track performed by Carpenter and a group of friends who formed a band called The Coupe De Villes. Another notable song in the film is "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by the classic rock band Blue Öyster Cult.
