You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: John Carpenter’s Latter-Day ‘Halloween’ Scores Get Expanded Box Set

“The night HE came home” is about to have a whole new meaning, thanks to a new box set from Sacred Bones Records containing expanded presentations of the scores to the late ’10s/early ’20s Halloween trilogy of horror films.
Halloween: The Complete Expanded Collection will offer, on three CDs or six LPs, a previously-released expanded presentation of the score to the 2018 sequel/reboot, along with new expansions of the music to sequels Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022) – all composed by original series composer/creator/director John Carpenter with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies (the son of Kinks legend Dave Davies). The luxe packaging includes a lenticular cover, newly-designed artwork by Chris Bilheimer, posters for each film by design firm Creepy Duck (with an additional box-exclusive poster by Bilheimer), and new liner notes by Brad Sanders, who spoke with Carpenter and the trilogy’s co-writer/director David Gordon Green for the essay. The expanded albums will also be available individually, with color vinyl variants aplenty. Each title and variant will be available October 3.
Carpenter invented the modern slasher film with 1978’s Halloween, a tense thriller that followed teen babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Psycho scream queen Janet Leigh) as she and her friends are stalked by a white-masked killer named Michael Myers – also known as “The Shape” – an escaped psychiatric patient who murdered his sister as a child. The wildly successful film spawned decades of sequels, though only 1981’s Halloween II and 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch (an underrated film that attempted to turn the series into a horror anthology and had nothing to do with Myers or Strode) featured Carpenter’s handiwork. After eight films (including 1998’s Halloween H20, which featured a returning Curtis in a direct sequel to the first two films) and a pair of remakes by musician-turned-director Rob Zombie, the series seemed deader than Myers’ victims.
That all changed in 2018 when Green – working from a script he co-wrote with comedian Danny McBride – returned to Haddonfield, Illinois for a new Halloween story that ignored all but the original film. Here, Curtis returned as Strode, a steely, traumatized survivor prepared to the point of mania for Myers’ inevitable return – a seemingly implausible situation that comes true 40 years after his last escape. The new Halloween was a critical and commercial success, and spawned two very unexpected sequels: 2021’s Halloween Kills picked up where the last one left off, offering fan favorite characters from the series, a COVID-era rumination on paranoia and mob violence and buckets of fake blood and gore. A year later, the unusual, divisive Halloween Ends seemed to intimate Michael Myers’ spiritual evil, infecting a misunderstood teen years after The Shape’s apparent disappearance. Unusually, Ends featured a definitive ending for Strode and Myers’ intertwined stories, and no further reboot attempts have been made yet.
Beyond the committed performances of Curtis and tasteful Easter eggs for fans (including several cameos from Carpenter collaborator/director Nick Castle, who played The Shape in the original film), the new Halloween trilogy’s biggest seal of approval came from Carpenter coming back to score the films. By this point, the Master of Horror had stepped away from filmmaking for some time, partnering with the Brooklyn indie Sacred Bones on his Lost Themes series of electronic albums (on which Cody and Davies also collaborated) and even an anthology of his soundtrack work, including the raw, complex, driving synth theme to Halloween. He gamely returned to Haddonfield for the trilogy alongside his family, with an even chillier rig of synthesizers breathing life into the film’s classic themes along with new, occasionally disorienting ideas.
Amazon links are forthcoming, but the sets can be pre-ordered directly from the label or at Bandcamp, with vinyl variants exclusive to the label store (“toxic pumpkin” for the box, “melted pumpkin” for Halloween, “inferno” for Kills and “tunnel light” for Ends). The latter two newly expanded scores will also be available separately on CD. It’s all available October 3.
Halloween: The Complete Expanded Collection (Sacred Bones SBR-348, 2025)
6LP: Sacred Bones (Toxic Pumpkin / Dried Blood) / Bandcamp
3CD: Sacred Bones / Bandcamp
CD 1/LP 1-2: Halloween (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Expanded Edition) (originally released as Sacred Bones SBR-231, 2019 – original film released 2018)
2LP: Sacred Bones (Melted Pumpkin / Bone White/Orange Splatter) / Bandcamp
- Intro
- Aaron Meets Michael
- Halloween Theme
- Laurie’s Theme
- Aaron and Dana Enter Laurie’s Compound
- Laurie’s Past
- Prison Montage
- Laurie Breaks Down
- Karen’s Flashback
- Lumpy Explores Crash
- Michael Kills
- Hawkins Arrives At Crash Site
- Dana’s in the Shower
- The Story of Judith’s Death
- The Gas Station
- Michael Kills Again
- Gas Station Aftermath
- The Shape Returns
- The Boogeyman
- The Shape Kills
- Hawkins Called to Babysitter’s House
- Laurie Sees The Shape
- Babysitter Aftermath
- Sartain Meets Laurie
- Looking for Allyson
- Wrought Iron Fence
- The Shape Hunts Allyson
- Talking to Cops
- Allyson Discovered
- Gun Closet
- Halloween Theme (I’ve Got Eyes)
- Sartain’s Gone Mad
- Say Something
- Through the Woods
- Ray’s Goodbye
- The Shape Attacks Laurie
- The Shape is Monumental
- Searching for The Shape
- Mannequin Panic
- Death Drum
- The Shape and Laurie Fight
- The Grind
- Trap The Shape
- The Shape Burns
- Halloween Triumphant
Tracks 1, 3-4, 7, 11, 16, 18-20, 22, 26-2729, 33, 35, 37, and 41-45 originally released as Sacred Bones 31067, 2018
CD 2/LP 2-3: Halloween Kills (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Expanded Edition) (original film released 2021)
2LP: Sacred Bones (Inferno / Orange/Green Splatter) / Bandcamp
CD: Sacred Bones / Bandcamp
- Logos Kill
- Hawkins Discovered *
- Flashback *
- Spit *
- Hey Kid *
- The Myers House
- Cops Explore *
- First Attack
- Stand Off
- Halloween Kills (Main Title)
- Let It Burn
- He Appears
- From the Fire
- Strodes At the Hospital
- Cruel Intentions
- Phone Call *
- Massacre *
- Someone’s in the Car *
- Halloween Trick *
- Back At the Hospital *
- Goodbye Michael *
- Gather the Mob
- Rampage
- Frank *
- Search *
- Frank and Laurie
- Evil Dies Tonight *
- The System Failed *
- Blood on the Door *
- Disturbed Man *
- Violent Return *
- Hallway Madness
- It Needs to Die
- Look At Me *
- Reflection
- Hunting a Killer *
- Righteous Intentions *
- Morbid Discovery *
- Unkillable
- Payback
- Michael’s Legend
- Back to His Sister’s Room *
- Final Kill *
- Michael Answers *
- Halloween Kills (End Titles)
Tracks 1, 6, 8-15, 22-23, 26, 32-33, 35, 39-41 and 45 originally released as Sacred Bones SBR-263, 2021
CD 3/LP 5-6: Halloween Ends (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Expanded Edition) (original film released 2022)
2LP: Sacred Bones (Tunnel Light / Orange/Red Splatter) / Bandcamp
CD: Sacred Bones / Bandcamp
- Where is Jeremy?
- Halloween Ends (Main Title)
- Laurie’s Theme Ends
- The Cave
- Tire Slash *
- Cool Kid
- Drags to the Cave
- Evil Eyes
- Transformation
- Because of You
- Walk with Me *
- Requiem for Jeremy
- In the Restaurant *
- Bridge Fight *
- Kill the Cop
- Corey and Allyson *
- Side of the Road *
- Corey and Michael
- Slap *
- Corey’s Requiem
- Take the Mask *
- The Junk Yard
- Where Are You
- Suicide *
- What Did You Do *
- Bye Bye Corey
- The Fight
- Before Her Eyes
- The Procession
- Cherry Blossoms
- Halloween Ends (End Title)
Tracks 1-4, 6-10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22-23 and 26-31 originally released as Sacred Bones SBR-315, 2023





