Read This: Lalo Schifrin originally composed a very different score for The Exorcist
It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when the opening piano solo from Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” didn’t elicit a sense of fear and dread. Released in May of 1973, Oldfield’s instrumental garnered considerable notoriety in December of that year after it was used in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. There is very little music in the horror classic, thus lending to its documentary-like vibe, but originally Lalo Schifrin (perhaps best known for the Mission: Impossible theme song) had composed a more traditional score for the possession tale.
“William Friedkin hired me to write the music for the trailer,” Schifrin revealed to Score Magazine. “Six minutes were recorded for the Warner’s edition of the trailer. The people who saw the trailer reacted against the film, because the scenes were heavy and frightening, so most of them went to the toilet to vomit.”
The trailer that Schifrin refers to terrified audiences with its use of the composer’s heavy score, flash imagery and an ominous tone. It also scared the hell out of Warner Bros. executives.