2026 October 05 • Monday

The 922nd Soundtrack of the Week, and the first 2026 Shocktober selection, is Don Peake's music for The Hills Have Eyes.

This has to be one of the best examples of using a little to get a lot. There's a piano, a synthesizer, some percussion and some strings and that's pretty much it.

Most of the cues rely on the piano and synth to create moods of dread and terror, with strings and percussion added for extra effect as needed.

It balances texture and atmosphere with some urgent driving moods. Somewhere in "Stealing The Baby/Lynne Is Shot/RV Fight/Finding The Walkie Talkie" a drum kit playing a rock beat comes out of nowhere and the synth gets to groove for a while.

A similar surprise rock/funk idiom appearance comes in "Ruby Runs With Baby/The Rabbit/Brenda Sees Mutant/Dead Mom Decoy". There aren't a ton of swinging parts in this score but when they happen, they're great.

This release includes some alternate versions of those as well as wind sounds created by synth, some axe hit stings and a couple of tracks of just percussion.

"Criminal" by Public Image Ltd. changes the feel entirely by keeping some of the rock elements but steering the music into a sparer, jagged, not funky but not exactly not not funky either place..

I don't really remember that song or the next one, "So Long Cowboy" by Westworld. Time to watch the movie again!

The last song on the record Sheryl Crow's "Hundreds of Tears", which has an appropriate dramatic and emotional feel to it.