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The lineup of Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin is Daniele Amador, guitar; Goblin co-founder Simonetti on keyboards; Ceclia Nappo on bass; and Federico Maragoni on drums. 

Gobsmacked by Goblins.

That’s a perfect expression of how I felt when I decided do some research on an Italian band that specializes in creating spooky movie music. The band is Goblin, and I first heard them in England in 1977 when I went to see an Italian horror movie called Suspiria, by Italian horror master Dario Argento.
Fast forward to 1986. By this time I’m living on Maui and I hear Goblin again, this time doing the soundtrack for Demons, a horror video produced by Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava, son of Italian horror master Mario Bava.

I liked the music in those films but I didn’t become a Goblin fan until last week when I was searching for a good flick among the Criterion Channel’s seasonal horror offerings.

This is how it all began.

October might be my favorite month – the light, the trees, the weather and, of course, Halloween and all it represents. It’s the time when all my favorite streaming services load up with spooky movies.
This year’s offerings include a selection called Horror F/X, which includes a hodgepodge of eras featuring monsters of all sorts, with 15 movies ranging from James Whales’ 1931 Frankenstein to David Cronenberg’s 1986 The Fly.

Speaking of Cronenberg, he has a separate seasonal category with six films. Too bad The Fly overlaps the two categories.

Then we have 13 offerings under the category of Japanese Horror, beginning in 1964 with the wind-swept beauty of Onibaba and going well into the 21st century with Creepy (2016).

Stories by Stephen King includes four films from the pen of the Maine horror master.

A category called Witches features 14 movies on the subject, including Nicholas Roeg’s 1990 take on Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

And the final seasonal offering from Criterion, Giallo! – 15 films representing an Italian murder-horror style that in this country might have been best conveyed by Brian DePalma, especially his Dressed to Kill (1980).

I was thinking of rewatching Suspiria, which is not included in the Giallo! selection, but is offered elsewhere by the Criterion Channel.

Then I noticed that within the Giallo! offering was Profondo Rosso (Deep Red), the 1975 movie made by Dario Argento right before Suspiria and featuring his first collaboration with Goblin. It’s a murder mystery starring David Hemmings as a jazz pianist who gets involved in the murder investigation of a woman – a psychic – who was murdered in his apartment building.

The film begins with Claudio Simonetti tickling his keyboard somewhat in the style of the piano in Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, the soundtrack theme of The Exorcist. And then, Fabio Pignatelli’s big, fat electric bass takes the lead, and it is magnificent. As soon as I heard that bass line I paused the movie and ordered the Profondo Rosso soundtrack on vinyl (and while I was at it, I ordered the Suspiria soundtrack as well).

This was Goblin’s first association with director Dario Argento. The next would be his delicious 1977 witchy horror story Suspiria. There would be more, including in 1985 Demons, a movie Argento produced and directed by Lamberto Bava, son of Italian horror master Mario Bava.

Since it is the spooky season, I thought I’d write up something on the Goblin soundtracks, and since the Profondo Rosso soundtrack turns 50 next year, I did not expect to learn good things when I did a “where are they now” search for band members.

And, what, are you kidding me! Not only is Goblin still going strong, but there are two Goblins, and one of them is starting off a massive U.S. tour at Milwaukee’s Oriental Theater on Halloween to play the Demons soundtrack live.

The U.S. touring version is actually called Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, after co-founding member and keyboardist Simonetti. The other band, just called Goblin but with a website that proclaims “Official Goblin Website,” features original drummer Walter Martino and keyboardist Maurizio Guarin, who joined the band after they had made Profondo Rosso, and, it turns out, though that Goblin has been inactive since 2018, they have two shows scheduled in Norway on Nov. 2 and 3.

With a bit of luck, I’ll be at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee on Halloween for a showing of the 1985 Italian horror film Demons with the band Goblin playing the soundtrack live.

Now, that’s Halloween!