HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988)

Weirdly linked together in my list of soundtracks and notable life moments are a high school field trip to the great mecca of New York City and Christopher Young's dark, unforgiving score for the 1988 horror movie HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II.  Admittedly yes, it's a strange association to share, that of a blood-soaked nightmarish film with an excursion to the Big Apple; nevertheless, any time I grab this CD off the shelf, highlights of my wide-eyed, fresh-faced journey there are conjured up. And you know, some might argue that this music could actually underscore various shadowy sections of the massive metropolis.

December 1989 occurred during my junior year at Rocky Mount High School, the year in which I had fully invested myself in its scrappy yet earnest theater program and drama classes.  Scheduled for that month was a week-long field trip to New York City solely for the students and teachers who made that theater program live and breathe.   Excitement ratcheted to giddy levels as we learned our agenda consisted of sight-seeing, Broadway show-going and (awkwardly attempted) choreography classes.  And for many of us, including me, it represented the lengthiest amount of time away from home and parental supervision.

Several days prior to departing, while watching television late one night and half-heartedly flipping channels, I happened across the closing ten minutes of 1987's HELLRAISER on HBO.  Written and directed by horror novelist Clive Barker, it was a film I knew only by reputation as being especially gory and intense.  Both then and now, I'm not a viewer who can handle horror movies too often, yet curiosity kept me tuned in that evening.  The finale unfolded as expectedly harrowing, full of jagged puzzle boxes and perforated demons, but I'll be damned (no pun intended) if the music didn't completely surprise and engage me, even through to the last end credit.  Fully orchestral, melodic, ominous and memorable, with a final cue that was a melancholic string-dominated elegy. 

Broadcast that night immediately after was the sequel, HELLBOUND, and, purely for the music, I decided to risk inevitable nightmares and continue watching (yes, nightmares did occur).  The main title cue of powerful brass and choir bolted forth aggressively, showcasing a twisted religiosity, like the menacing flipside of Biblical-themed epics from Hollywood's Golden Age.  According to the title credits, the composer was Christopher Young, a name new to me and one that now demanded my attention as a soundtrack fan.  I only lasted about twenty minutes into the film yet I still found myself intrigued by the storyline, so in addition to being introduced to the scores of Christopher Young, the world of Clive Barker was also presented to me and proved to fascinate for years following.

Now, regarding that New York school field trip, departure was scheduled near our Christmas break, if I recall correctly.   Gathering at the high school several hours before sunrise, we eager drama students bounded aboard a convoy of Greyhound buses, choosing seating partners while waiting in line.  Quite a long ride awaited us so of course we each needed to remain ensconced in our comfortable cliques.  The great thing, however, was that there was such a strong sense of camaraderie between everyone on this journey, even those who were new to each other, so there really wasn't much an air of exclusivity.  For me, I was able to spend more time with new friends such as Jeff Dale, Tara Stewart and Roland Hankerson.  

In addition, the other experience that can occur on such crucial teen-aged trips, when surrounded mainly by those your own age, is brief yet intense crushes and flings.  Like flash paper, though, such flings burn blindingly bright for mere moments, sometimes painfully so. On this trip north, I somehow began flirting with one particular girl whom I had not met before during normal school hours.  She was shy and bespectacled, with blond curly hair.  This kind of attention was still very strange and new for me, but accepted unhesitatingly.  By the time we arrived in NYC, she and I seemed to have swiftly evolved into a full-fledged couple, though this mostly consisted of clammy hand-holding and tiny, quick kisses.  Stumbling around at love back then was the standard more often than not.  

I was thrilled and amazed as we toured Times Square, dawdled at the Met, hailed cabs and lunched at the World Trade Center.  I'm not sure how many square miles of the city we covered, but it felt like every corner was explored.  An amount of autonomy was allowed by our chaperones, leading to burgeoning feelings of independence and control over our young lives.  While my friends and I strolled through city streets at night, laughing and joking, I garnered a small sense of adult life past that present day.  It was a feeling I could recall when house and school rules seemed never-ending.  

We attended a performances of both THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and LES MISERABLES right there on Broadway and even spontaneously took in a matinee of GYPSY on another day.  Many in our group breathlessly anticipated the former two events, as back then those two productions, along with MISS SAIGON, ruled the high school drama classes as favorites among the kids.  Retracing my steps to the opening topic, though, I was overjoyed to finally visit the Tower Records location in the Village area.  Their soundtrack section was brimming with every available album I could have imagined and more, but browsing time had to be kept short.  

"Kid in a candy store" is the favored expression, right?  Well, Tower Records was the "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory" of music stores, including a treasure trove of movie scores I longed to hear, all here at my fingertips, yet I had to remain cognizant of limited funds in my wallet and minutes on the clock.   Thus, HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II earned the distinction of being the score I targeted on that visit and it was actually the first CD I ever purchased.  I didn't even own a CD player and I didn't care.   Thank goodness my dad set about purchasing a 6-CD stereo unit that same Christmas.  

Sadly, over the course of the week, I began to feel smothered in that new romantic relationship which ignited at its start. Slowly I pulled away from the shy girl, feeling terrible about it the entire time.  All I had wanted for so long was this attention from girls at school.  Then it presented itself and I wriggled away after only a few days.   I soon learned that not every offer of affection should be accepted without a little consideration.  To borrow a baseball metaphor, you just can't swing at everything tossed your way.  

The ride back home was mostly a blur, though I remember my parents waiting for me at school when the buses all filed in.  And I do remember a change in myself.  I felt bonded with my new friends, welcomed and appreciated, knowing that my presence really mattered and could be missed when absent.  We trusted and cared for each other and this experience helped nourish my confidence, realizing that good friendships had this potential. 

Once home with my new CD of HELLBOUND, I could better appreciate the music's strangeness, its fury and its dark beauty. In short order, I sought out Christopher Young scores for the original HELLRAISER, THE FLY II, the low-budget sci-fi flick DEF-CON 4 and any number of movies on no one's radar.  My palette was expanding when it came to movie music and Young represented his own unique, puzzling and compelling corner of the genre.