Christopher Young
( 1959 )

Christopher Young has evolved into one of the most skilled of a new generation of film composers who are able to move effortlessly between hardcore melodrama and off-the-wall satire and comedy. He combines the orchestral craftsmanship of the great film composers of the 50s, 60s and 70s with an edgy sensibility as well as a keen and sharply-tuned intelligence. His music can enhance dramas with subtlety and simplicity, propel suspense and action films with powerfully thrusting rhythms and electrifying textures, and provide comedies and unusual subject matter with hip, cutting-edge musical commentary. He achieved early recognition in 1987 with his bone-chilling score to the Clive Barker horror tale Hellraiser and in 1988 added two more thundering horror scores to his resume: Hellbound: Hellraiser II and The Fly II.

Youngs distinctive and imaginative approaches to several unusual projects have made him a highly sought-after commodity on films with unusual subject matter. He wrote an ingenious score incorporating breathing effects for the offbeat film The Vagrant in 1992. His score to the moody serial killer film Jennifer Eight added immeasurably to the films unnerving atmosphere, while his darkly dramatic score to the Christian Slater/Kevin Bacon prison drama Murder in the First distinguished it from several competing courtroom thrillers. In 1995 his music elevated a trio of thrillers: the sci fi horror film Species received an unnerving score in the manner of Saint-Saens; the cyber-reality adventure Virtuosity was energized by a supercharged action score, and the Sigourney Weaver/Holly Hunter serial killer film Copycat received a brilliantly nuanced score that burrowed deeply into the psychologies of both Weavers and Hunters characters. He tuned in perfectly to the offbeat sensibility of the Bill Murray comedy The Man Who Knew Too Little and provided an appropriate urban blues groove to the John Dahl gambling melodrama Rounders.

His other works include the scores for Head Above Water, Jon Amiels Entrapment, The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito, Norman Jewisons Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, The Wonder Boys, starring Michael Douglas, Sam Raimis The Gift, as well as the scores to such hits as Runaway Jury, The Core and An Unfinished Life. Christopher recently scored the hit film The Grudge starring Sarah Michelle Geller and MGMs Beauty Shop, starring Queen Latifah. He has just finished working on The Exorcism of Emily Rose which was released September 9th 2005. Chris is just starting work on Curtis Hansons new movie Lucky You, starring Drew Barrymore & Eric Bana.