By JASON COMERFORD

The reputation of Argentinian composer Waldo de los Ríos today rests largely upon a series of pop reworkings of selections from the European classical repertoire he produced throughout the 1970s, recordings which regularly climbed the charts but drove the classical elite insane; they were but one part, however, of de los Ríos’s enormous body of work. A pianist and arranger in addition to a composer and conductor, de los Ríos first achieved success as the leader of a group called “The Waldos,” which combined then-contemporary electronic elements with the jangle of Argentinian folk music. A career in film music followed, with de los Ríos contributing to dozens of films and television shows through the 1960s and 70s, in addition to his popular reimaginings of pieces from the classical canon.

An excellent gateway into the multifaceted talents of Waldo de los Ríos is his score for Narciso Ibanez Serrador’s fondly-remembered cult horror film Who Can Kill a Child? [¿Quien puede matar a un nino?] Frequently recut, released under a number of titles, and existing for years only as a tantalizing entry in genre film guides, Who Can Kill a Child? was finally made available in a 2007 DVD release from Dark Sky Films. Thematically similar to Stephen King’s short story “Children of the Corn” (published around the same time), the film concerns an English couple (Lewis Flander and Prunella Ransome) who arrive on a deserted island that seems to be populated exclusively by children – children who have decided to strike back against the adults of the world. Deliberately paced and more than a little dated, but undeniably unnerving, Who Can Kill a Child? was the second collaboration between de los Ríos and Serrador, the first being the slasher The House That Screamed, eight years prior.

A commanding and distinctive contribution to the film’s overall sense of claustrophobic horror, de los Ríos’s score bubbles and churns throughout the film, subtly increasing the tension through a canny mixture of traditional orchestral effects (tremolo celli, uneasy brass) and more modern electronic manipulations and textures. In its climactic moments, Ransome realizes, to her horror, that her unborn child is trying to kill her, and de los Ríos unleashes the score’s eerie centerpiece, “Slow Death from the Interior,” a striking collage of fractured sounds, unsettling orchestral colors, and twisted samplings of the score’s gentle, pop-styled main theme. Skittering strings and a unique processed electronic effect suggesting sounds heard from within the womb all build to an unresolved finish, giving the film’s most memorable sequence a spectral, otherworldly feel.

De los Ríos’s score is a striking example of musical creativity, mixing as it does so many different elements together into a remarkably cohesive whole, and it’s a lasting testament to the composer’s restless abilities. Sadly, it was to be one of de los Ríos’s last works; a longtime sufferer of depression, he committed suicide in Madrid on March 28, 1977. Thankfully, his memory has been kept alive through the efforts of Spanish producer Jose M. Benitez, who in 2009 produced a lavish limited edition of de los Ríos’s complete score for Who Can Kill a Child?, paired with a second disc that included the score’s original album assembly as well as de los Ríos’s score for The House That Screamed. For enthusiasts of the genre, Who Can Kill a Child? may be one of the best horror scores you’ve never heard, and comes highly recommended.