How do you write music for death itself? That’s the question composer Shirley Walker asked herself when writing the score for FINAL DESTINATION (2000), the first of five sequels that would create one of horror’s most unique millennial franchises. Already a proven name in the genre, Walker spent the time up to her unfortunate 2006 passing writing beautiful music for horror, not only illustrating that symphonic music still belonged alongside the alternative metal soundtracks of the late ’90s, but that a woman could make a name for herself in a field dominated by men.
Even when working with such storied genre composers as Richard Band (GHOULIES) and Charles Bernstein (CUJO), Walker was left in the background, and it wasn’t until 1989 and the arrival of a world-famous superhero that her reputation skyrocketed. Danny Elfman may have written the music for Batman, but he couldn’t conduct it or orchestrate it, so in came Walker to help him make the Bat sound as fabulous as possible, and with her leading the Sinfonia of London, boy she did. This led to her composing a crucial climactic cue for Elfman while he was scoring the 1990 Clive Barker film NIGHTBREED and following that she would go on to compose the score for John Carpenter’s ill-fated 1992 science fiction comedy MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN.
While in the ’90s she worked with Carpenter again as well as James Cameron, she also worked heavily in television, winning awards as she revisited the caped crusader in the highly-regarded Saturday morning show Batman: The Animated Series. But in 1995 she scored Space: Above and Beyond, a science fiction show created by Glen Morgan and James Wong, who had written episodes of The X-Files and had been showrunners on its sister show, Millennium. The show was not a success, but Morgan and Wong remembered her when they decided to move to the big screen with their high-concept horror picture FINAL DESTINATION.
FINAL DESTINATION was an extrapolation of the inventive death scenes that had begun in the days of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Mario Bava and would pepper slasher movies in their heyday, often becoming the most popular parts of the film. Framing them within a tale of premonitions and the idea that a group of people had cheated death allowed Morgan and Wong and writer Jeffrey Reddick to create a tale where death had a design and would stalk anyone who tried to circumvent that plan. Walker was the perfect choice for the supernatural fable, and the creative team were happy for her to indulge her melodic sweet tooth.
The film opened with a traditional main title sequence – a rarity for today – and this allowed Walker to beautifully establish her main theme that represented the sinister plans of the grim reaper. Walker’s theme is pervasive and moves through the score like a snake, always reminding us that death might be around every corner. But even in that little sequence, she brilliantly tells the audience that it can be challenged. Defeated.
Walker called the theme a “musical accomplice”, stating in her DVD audio commentary for the film that “it needed to capture all of the qualities of this force of death that is a trickster really, in the film the death presence becomes a trickster with a very mean spirited sense of humour. The low strings were the perfect choice for that.”
Walker runs with the theme gleefully, such as when the plane explodes and we see the reaction of those who were supposed to be on board, and she uses this beautifully gothic flourish that morphs into the main theme as they look around and realise what’s happened. It’s a little reminiscent of Christopher Young’s style in films such as HELLRAISER, where it swells into this huge beautifully dark moment that has to be as intense as possible because it’s so short, such is the nature of film scoring. Walker’s score is thrilling, a lot of the time because Morgan and Wong just let her go wild with the orchestra and electronics and create something that’s not only big and unsubtle but also melodically rich.
Walker got the nod to score two of the sequels, FINAL DESTINATION 2 (2003) and FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006) and increasingly used electronic instruments along with the orchestra for each score, and while Brian Tyler scored THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) and FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011), he kept Walker’s legacy and continued to use that distinct theme, albeit with his own arrangements. Walker’s next foray into horror was 2002’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: RITUAL, a low-budget picture that was essentially a remake of the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur classic I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). Her music is certainly the best thing about the film, and she was able to create some intense and quite emotional material.
In 2003, Walker returned to work with Morgan and Wong on a semi-remake of the 1971 horror WILLARD and its 1972 sequel BEN, as well as the original source material in the guise of Stephen Gilbert’s Ratman’s Notebooks, with Crispin Glover as a social outcast who uses rats as a tool for his revenge against his boss and others. For this, Walker composed a spectacular and witty score influenced by the great Bernard Herrmann, with wonderful use of accordions and typically strong and unique writing from the composer.
Her final score was BLACK CHRISTMAS in 2006, again with Morgan and Wong, a remake of the 1971 slasher classic. Vying for musical space with classic songs of the season, Walker nevertheless provided a jolting and forceful horror score that once again showed her to be a match for most composers in the field, given the opportunity. Unfortunately, Shirley Walker died of a stroke on November 30th, 2006.
What stands out now is that there is still a huge amount of her work that has not been released outside of the films, which is all the more surprising given how high-profile some of the projects have been. None of her scores for the FINAL DESINATION movies have received soundtracks (but of course Brian Tyler’s did). WILLARD was lucky enough to get a release, but we’re still waiting on BLACK CHRISTMAS as well – there’s probably no chance of RITUAL, and even with the gigantic name of Danny Elfman, there’s been no expanded edition of NIGHTBREED with her cue on.
However, what’s sure is that Shirley Walker is a respected figure not just amongst enthusiasts but other composers, with many out there now taking her lead, such as Tara Busch of JAKOB’S WIFE (2021) and Gazelle Twin of THE POWER (2021), both of whom are bringing fresh new voices to horror scoring. It’s important that she’s remembered as someone who made real inroads where many thought she wasn’t supposed to be, and when she got her opportunity she grabbed it with both hands and brought a strong melodic influence to one of the biggest millennial franchises in horror.
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