Christopher Young

Christopher Young (born April 28, 1958) is an American composer of film and television scores.

Many of his compositions are for horror and thriller films, including Hellraiser, Species, Urban Legend, The Grudge, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Drag Me to Hell, Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil and Pet Sematary. Other works include Rapid Fire, Copycat, Set It Off, Entrapment, The Hurricane, Swordfish, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, and The Shipping News, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

Young was honored with the prestigious [Richard H. Kirk] award at the 2008 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.

Early life and education

Young was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. He graduated from Hampshire College in Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts in music, and then completed his post-graduate work at the University of North Texas.

Career

In 1980, he moved to Los Angeles. Originally a jazz drummer, when he heard some of Bernard Herrmann's works he decided to become a film composer. He studied at the UCLA Film School under David Raksin. He teaches at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California.

Works as composer

Film

1980s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1981	The Minstrel’s Song	Chris Hopkins	Short film
1982	The Dorm That Dripped Blood	Stephen Carpenter Jeffrey Obrow	Template:N/A
	Highpoint	Peter Carter	Replacement score
1983	Robby	Ralph C. Bluemke	Replacement score – Music for the 1983 VHS release (original release: 1968)
1984	The Power	Stephen Carpenter Jeffrey Obrow	Template:N/A
	The Oasis	Sparky Greene	Template:N/A
1985	Avenging Angel	Robert Vincent O'Neil	Template:N/A
	Def-Con 4	Paul Donovan	Replacement score
	Barbarian Queen	Héctor Olivera	Tracked music – Credit shared with James Horner
	Wizards of the Lost Kingdom	Héctor Olivera	Tracked music – Credit shared with James Horner
	Godzilla 1985	R.J. Kizer Koji Hashimoto	Tracked music (US release); part of Young's score from Def-Con 4 appears in several scenes, including Godzilla's attack on the Soviet submarine, the scene where the SDF armored division arrives in Tokyo Bay, and Okumura's near-death experience during the helicopter extraction in Tokyo.
	Wheels of Fire	Cirio H. Santiago	Template:N/A
	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge	Jack Sholder	Template:N/A
1986	Getting Even	Dwight H. Little	Template:N/A
	Torment	Samson Aslanian John Hopkins	Template:N/A
	Invaders from Mars	Tobe Hooper	Template:N/A
	Trick or Treat	Charles Martin Smith	Template:N/A
1987	Hellraiser	Clive Barker	Template:N/A
	Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans	Jim Wynorski	Additional music – Tracked music
	Flowers in the Attic	Jeffrey Bloom	Template:N/A
	U-Boats: The Wolfpack	Patrick Griffin Richard Jones	Short films – “Rommel” / “Secret Weapons of WW2” / “U Boats: The Wolf Pack” / “B17 The Flying Fortress” / “Luftwaffe – The Air Weapon” – Tracked music
1988	The Telephone	Rip Torn	Template:N/A
	Bat*21	Peter Markle	Template:N/A
	Haunted Summer	Ivan Passer	Template:N/A
	Hellbound: Hellraiser II	Tony Randel	Template:N/A
1989	The Fly II	Chris Walas	Template:N/A
	Hider in the House	Matthew Patrick	Template:N/A

1990s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1990	Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back	Joe Finley	Tracked music – Direct-to-video
	The Exorcist III	William Peter Blatty	Incomplete unused replacement score
	Bright Angel	Michael Fields	Template:N/A
1991	The Five Heartbeats	Robert Townsend	Additional music
1992	The Vagrant	Chris Walas	Template:N/A
	Jersey Girl	David Burton Morris	Unused
	Rapid Fire	Dwight H. Little	Template:N/A
	Jennifer 8	Bruce Robinson	Replacement score
1993	The Dark Half	George A. Romero	Template:N/A
	Sliver	Phillip Noyce	Additional music
	Dream Lover	Nicholas Kazan	Template:N/A
1994	Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale	Xavier Koller	Incomplete unused score
1995	Murder in the First	Marc Rocco	Template:N/A
	Tales from the Hood	Rusty Cundieff	Template:N/A
	Species	Roger Donaldson	Template:N/A
	Virtuosity	Brett Leonard	Template:N/A
	Copycat	Jon Amiel	Template:N/A
1996	Unforgettable	John Dahl	Template:N/A
	Set It Off	F. Gary Gray	Template:N/A
	Head Above Water	Jim Wilson	Template:N/A
1997	Murder at 1600	Dwight H. Little	Template:N/A
	The Man Who Knew Too Little	Jon Amiel	Template:N/A
1998	Hard Rain	Mikael Salomon	Template:N/A
	Hush	Jonathan Darby	Template:N/A
	Rounders	John Dahl	Template:N/A
	Judas Kiss	Sebastian Gutierrez	Template:N/A
	Urban Legend	Jamie Blanks	Template:N/A
	Playing by Heart	Willard Carroll	Additional music
1999	Entrapment	Jon Amiel	Template:N/A
	In Too Deep	Michael Rymer	Template:N/A
	The Big Kahuna	John Swanbeck	Template:N/A
	The Hurricane	Norman Jewison	Template:N/A

2000s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2000	Wonder Boys	Curtis Hanson	Template:N/A
	Bless the Child	Chuck Russell	Template:N/A
	The Gift	Sam Raimi	Template:N/A
2001	Madison	William Bindley	Themes only – Score by Kevin Kiner
	Sweet November	Pat O'Connor	Replacement score
	Swordfish	Dominic Sena	Template:N/A
	Scenes of the Crime	Dominique Forma	Template:N/A
	The Glass House	Daniel Sackheim	Template:N/A
	Bandits	Barry Levinson	Template:N/A
	The Shipping News	Lasse Hallström	Template:N/A
2002	Dragonfly	Tom Shadyac	Incomplete unused score
	The Country Bears	Peter Hastings	Template:N/A
	The Tower	E. Gedney Webb Jim Elliott	Short film
2003	The Core	Jon Amiel	Template:N/A
	Shade	Damian Nieman	European release only
	Runaway Jury	Gary Fleder	Template:N/A
	Something’s Gotta Give	Nancy Meyers	Additional music
2004	Spider-Man 2	Sam Raimi	Additional music
	The Grudge	Takashi Shimizu	Template:N/A
2005	Hide and Seek	John Polson	Incomplete unused score
	Beauty Shop	Bille Woodruff	Template:N/A
	Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous	John Pasquin	Additional music – Tracked music
	The Exorcism of Emily Rose	Scott Derrickson	Template:N/A
	An Unfinished Life	Lasse Hallström	Unused
2006	Ask the Dust	Robert Towne	Incomplete unused score
	The Grudge 2	Takashi Shimizu	Template:N/A
	Dark Ride	Craig Singer	Themes only – Score by Kostas Christides
2007	Ghost Rider	Mark Steven Johnson	Template:N/A
	Spider-Man 3	Sam Raimi	Also appears in a cameo role (“Music director”); Themes by Danny Elfman
	Lucky You	Curtis Hanson	Template:N/A
	Shortcut to Happiness	Alec Baldwin (credited as "Harry Kirkpatrick")	Co-composed with Ramin Djawadi
2008	Untraceable	Gregory Hoblit	Template:N/A
	Sleepwalking	William Maher	Replacement score
	The Informers	Gregor Jordan	Replacement score
2009	The Uninvited	The Guard Brothers	Template:N/A
	Drag Me to Hell	Sam Raimi	Also appears in a cameo role (“Pedestrian with cupcake”)
	Creation	Jon Amiel	Template:N/A
	Love Happens	Brandon Camp	Template:N/A

2010s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2010	When in Rome	Mark Steven Johnson	Template:N/A
	Gone with the Pope	Duke Mitchell	Additional music
	The Black Tulip	Sonia Nassery Cole	Template:N/A
2011	Priest	Scott Stewart	Template:N/A
	The Rum Diary	Bruce Robinson	Template:N/A
	Faces in the Crowd	Julien Magnat	Themes only – Score by John McCarthy
2012	Sinister	Scott Derrickson	Template:N/A
	The Tall Man	Pascal Laugier	Themes only – Score by Todd Bryanton
	Box of Shadows	Mauro Borrelli	Themes only – Score by José J. Herring
	The Baytown Outlaws	Barry Battles	Template:N/A
	Scary or Die	Bob Badway	Segment "Re-Membered"
2013	Saving Norman	Hanneke Schutte	Short film produced by Kevin Spacey
	The Smile Man	Anton Lanshakov	Short film produced by Kevin Spacey
	Love’s Routine	Shirlyn Wong	Short film produced by Kevin Spacey
	Killing Season	Mark Steven Johnson	Template:N/A
	Gods Behaving Badly	Marc Turtletaub	Unreleased film
	A Madea Christmas	Tyler Perry	Template:N/A
2014	The Monkey King	Cheang Pou-soi	Template:N/A
	The Single Moms Club	Tyler Perry	Template:N/A
	Deliver Us from Evil	Scott Derrickson	Template:N/A
2016	The Monkey King 2	Cheang Pou-soi	Template:N/A
2018	One by One	Jeffrey Obrow	Template:N/A
	Tales from the Hood 2	Rusty Cundieff Darin Scott	Themes only – Score by Frederik Wiedmann
2019	Pet Sematary	Kevin Kölsch Dennis Widmyer	Template:N/A
	Fanboy	Gillian Greene	Short film

2020s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2020	The Empty Man	David Prior	Template:N/A
2022	The Offering	Oliver Park	Template:N/A
2023	Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror	Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau	New score (original release: 1922)
	The Piper	Erlingur Thoroddsen	Template:N/A
	Pursued	Jeffrey Obrow	Themes only – Score by Max Blomgren and Jung J Lee
	Bentobox	Olivia Owyeung	Short film – Themes only – Score by Matthew Rosales

Television

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1986	The Twilight Zone	Sheldon Larry Claudia Weill	S1 E15 (“A Small Talent for War” / “A Matter of Minutes”)
1987	American Harvest	Dick Lowry	TV film
	Vietnam War Story	Georg Stanford Brown David Burton Morris	TV series – Unknown episodes; probably S1 E1 (“The Mine”) and S1 E5 (“R & R”)
1989	Vietnam War Story: The Last Days	Luis Soto David Burton Morris	TV film – Segments: “The Last Outpost” / “Dirty Work”
1990	Max and Helen	Philip Saville	TV film
	Last Flight Out	Larry Elikann	TV film
1994	Judicial Consent	William Bindley	TV film
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Tim Fywell	TV film
2001	The Warden	Stephen Gyllenhaal	TV film
2004	Something the Lord Made	Joseph Sargent	TV film
2014	Dominion	Scott Stewart	TV series – S1 E0 (“Pilot”)
2020	50 States of Fright	Sam Raimi	TV series – S1 E1-2-3 (“The Golden Arm: Michigan”) + Series theme
2022	Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities	David Prior	TV series – S1 E3 (“The Autopsy”)
	Echo 3	Mark Boal Pablo Trapero Claudia Llosa Jeffrey Nachmanoff	TV series – 10 episodes – Replacement score

Video games

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2009	The Saboteur	Trey Watkins	Themes only – Score by Gabriel Mann and Rebecca Kneubuhl
2017	Wilson's Heart	Josh Bear	Template:N/A

Other work

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1984	The Philadelphia Experiment	Stewart Raffill	Trailer music
2011	A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project	Brian Weidling	Collaborative composition in aid of the charity “Hands Together” after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. A documentary directed by Brian Weidling, which captured the recording session, was released in 2017.
	Susan Graham: A Documentary	Template:N/A	Music for a documentary commemorating the retirement of Susan Graham, president of the Connecticut prep school “The Gunnery”
2016	Chevrolet TV-Spot	Sam Raimi	Commercial
2018	The Lost Children of Planet X	Template:N/A	Concept album developed from unused cues originally composed for the film Lucky You
	Three Bernard Herrmann “Melodramas”	Template:N/A	Narration of three poems – “Cynara” by Ernest Dowson, “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, and “The City of Brass” – scored by Bernard Herrmann and performed by the Hollywood Studio Orchestra, conducted by Michael McGehee
2022	Scream Warriors	Template:N/A	Interludes and arrangements for the Halloween rock record by LVCRFT

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Interview with Christopher Young at FilmMusicSite