Alice Cooper + Hollywood...yup, that works...

Oof, our little Ruckus At The Movies series has been laying dormant for a while, but comes back in 2025 with a bang! Unlike our former participants and noise merchants providing a ruckus at the movies, Vincent Fournier a.k.a. Alice Cooper actually had a bunch of ties to the movie world other than the occasional soundtrack contribution. Given his ample theatrics during his legendary stage shows it seemed only natural that Fournier would also step onto the silver screen. 

The first time I have seen him as an actor was in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, where he was the leader of the homicidal homeless surrounding the church where, uh, the devil is hiding in an oversized lava lamp. Kindasorta. It's actually a pretty good movie that has tons of great Carpenter traits. Title song "Prince of Darkness" is of course featured here. The other Cooper track I distinctly remember is "I Am The Future" from The Class Of 1984, also a great track that set the tone for the film to follow. The Class Of 1984 is deeply silly in some respects - but was also terribly prescient about the rise of violence in high schools and in society in general. 

Hey man, you got some spare change?...or a couple of spare organs to give..?

The tracks of this compilation are split between tracks he submitted for movies - sometimes  commissioned - and tracks for films in which he was acting and thus a logical contributor to the film's soundtrack. This of course means that the films Cooper provided music for include some real howlers and oddities, including Monster Dog and 1974's almost completely forgotten Flash Fearless. Two tracks apiece come from those, erm, classics. One film isn't a howler in the technical sense, but still regularly shows up on 'Worst of..'-lists, and that is the misbegotten musical adaptation of Sgt. Peppers, for which Cooper worked with the Bee Gees (!) on "Because". Like the film, it's an interesting curio, but probably better enjoyed as an abstract concept rather than the musical material itself. 

One track doesn't come from a movie, but was obviously intended for one. Cooper wrote "The Man With The Golden Gun" for the James Bond movie of the same name, yet it's unclear whether that was 'on spec' or whether any of the Bond people really approached him. You have to appreciate how Cooper clearly appoached some of the dynamics of a Bond theme song, including use of brass. It probably wasn't in any serious consideration, but it's an admirable effort and probably better than Lulu's final version abnyway, yet you can see why Cooper's reputation in the mainstream might have the Broccolis shying away from him.

"Uh, sorry to have bothered you, sir, I think I'll stop hitching and take the greyhound...uh, right now..."

He was commissioned to write a title song for Friday The 13th VI - Jason Lives!, though, and delivered. "He's Back (The Man In The Mask)" is featured twice here, both as a demo and the final track in the movie version - both are quite enjoyable and surprisingly good. Kind of like the movie it came from, easily the best fifth sequel to a horror film series - there admittedly aren't that many contenders - but also a genuinely worthwhile slasher with witty, ironic underpinnings. There is also a new version of "Under My Wheels", recorded with 3/5 of Guns'n'Roses for Penelope Spheeris' doc The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II - The Metal Years. 

Cooper's music for film is a bit like the man, or rather the character he plays: a little hoary, a little obvious, but a whole lot of fun. So join Mr. Fournier while he is causing another ruckus at the movies...