Composer Charles Bernstein On 1984’s A Nightmare On Elm Street

In nearly a decades worth of writing and sharing personal memories, I believe that I have successfully made my love of films quite clear. As I have mentioned in the past some of my earliest memories involve sitting in a darkened auditorium and watching movies – at the risk of sounding blasphemous I equate it to a nearly religious experience. While my earlier memories for the most part where what you would expect, Disney and animated fare – I have always been drawn to the horror genre. In my honest opinion it provides the absolute best theater going experience, the safety of the dark within the auditorium as well as feeding off of your fellow patrons as they react to the frights on the big screen. When I made the decision in my youth to attempt to be part of show business in some manner or another – it was thanks to 1993’s Jurassic Park. As I previously have shared, upon watching this film – it was the first time that I sort of saw behind the curtain, the artistry on display from Director Steven Spielberg but also composer John Williams. Now to be honest it’s not like I wasn’t paying attention to those composing the scores to some of my favorite movies – early on besides Williams, I gravitated towards the scores of John Carpenter as well as Danny Elfman.

My music collection consists mostly of soundtracks – one of those that I pull out when I want to get the chills is Charles Bernstein’s exceptional score for 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Just reading or saying the title of the film should conjure up those few chords that have become synonymous with the character of Freddy Krueger and the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series. Which is why I was so delighted when I found that Gibson Guitars has started a new YouTube series entitled “Behind the Board” where they will interview various composers, artists, and musicians about their work. Such as Charles Bernstein on working with Wes Craven and how he crafted such a memorable soundtrack for 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street!

I need to give thanks to John Squire of the Bloody Disgusting site for the heads up on this new series. You might be interested to know that at the age of 16, Charles Bernstein was conducting his own orchestral music – in addition to attending Juilliard. As of now he has 135 composing credits on the Internet Movie Database – his first major score was for the Burt Reynolds action film White Lightning from 1973. Since then he has composed the scores for the likes of the made for TV horror movies Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby and Are You in the House Alone? to The Entity, Cujo, Deadly Friend, and even Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf to name a few!

I’m looking forward to more of the “Behind the Board” series and I will be sure to share any future videos that I feel you should check out.