Christopher Young

Christopher Young
Christopher Young
	Young in 2022
Background information
Born	April 28, 1958 (age 66); Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Film score
Occupation(s)	Composer, orchestrator
Instrument	Piano
Years active	1982–present
Website	officialchristopheryoung.com

Christopher Young (born April 28, 1958) is an American composer of film and television scores.^[1]

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 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.^[2]

Early life and education

Young was born in Red Bank, New Jersey.^[3] 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.^[4]

Discography

Film

1960s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1968	Robby	Ralph C. Bluemke	1983 re-issue score

1980s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1982	The Dorm That Dripped Blood	Stephen Carpenter Jeffrey Obrow	—
1982	Highpoint	Peter Carter	—
1984	The Oasis	Sparky Greene	—
1984	The Power	Stephen Carpenter Jeffrey Obrow	—
1985	Avenging Angel	Robert Vincent O'Neil	—
	Def-Con 4	Paul Donovan	—
	Wheels of Fire	Cirio H. Santiago	—
	Wizards of the Lost Kingdom	Héctor Olivera	—
	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge	Jack Sholder	—
	Barbarian Queen	Héctor Olivera	—
	Godzilla 1985	R.J. Kizer Koji Hashimoto	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.^{[citation needed]}
1986	Getting Even	Dwight H. Little	—
	Torment	Samson Aslanian John Hopkins	—
	Invaders from Mars	Tobe Hooper	—
	Trick or Treat	Charles Martin Smith	—
1987	Hellraiser	Clive Barker	—
	Flowers in the Attic	Jeffrey Bloom	—
	U-Boats: The Wolfpack	—	Short film
1988	The Telephone	Rip Torn	—
	Hellbound: Hellraiser II	Tony Randel	—
	Bat21*	Peter Markle	—
	Haunted Summer	Ivan Passer	—
1989	Vietnam War Story: The Last Days	David Burton Morris Sandy Smolan	Segments "Last Outpost, The", "Dirty Work"
	The Fly II	Chris Walas	—
	Hider in the House	Matthew Patrick	—

1990s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1990	Bright Angel	Michael Fields	—
1990	Max and Helen	Philip Saville	—
1992	The Vagrant	Chris Walas	—
	Rapid Fire	Dwight H. Little	—
	Jennifer 8	Bruce Robinson	—
1993	The Dark Half	George A. Romero	—
1993	Dream Lover	Nicholas Kazan	—
1994	Judicial Consent	William Bindley	—
1995	Murder in the First	Marc Rocco	—
	Tales from the Hood	Rusty Cundieff	—
	Species	Roger Donaldson	—
	Virtuosity	Brett Leonard	—
	Copycat	Jon Amiel	—
1996	Unforgettable	John Dahl	—
	Set It Off	F. Gary Gray	—
	Head Above Water	Jim Wilson	—
	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Tim Fywell	—
1997	Murder at 1600	Dwight H. Little	—
1997	The Man Who Knew Too Little	Jon Amiel	—
1998	Hard Rain	Mikael Salomon	—
	Hush	Jonathan Darby	—
	Rounders	John Dahl	—
	Judas Kiss	Sebastian Gutierrez	—
	Urban Legend	Jamie Blanks	—
	Playing by Heart	Willard Carroll	replacement for score by John Barry
1999	Entrapment	Jon Amiel	—
	In Too Deep	Michael Rymer	—
	The Big Kahuna	John Swanbeck	—
	The Hurricane	Norman Jewison	—

2000s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2000	Wonder Boys	Curtis Hanson	—
	Bless the Child	Chuck Russell	—
	The Gift	Sam Raimi	—
2001	Sweet November	Pat O'Connor	—
	Swordfish	Dominic Sena	—
	Scenes of the Crime	Dominique Forma	—
	The Glass House	Daniel Sackheim	—
	Bandits	Barry Levinson	—
	The Shipping News	Lasse Hallström	—
2002	The Tower	E. Gedney Webb Jim Elliott	—
2002	The Country Bears	Peter Hastings	—
2003	The Core	Jon Amiel	—
2003	Runaway Jury	Gary Fleder	—
2004	Something the Lord Made	Joseph Sargent	—
2004	The Grudge	Takashi Shimizu	—
2005	Beauty Shop	Bille Woodruff	—
2005	The Exorcism of Emily Rose	Scott Derrickson	—
2006	The Grudge 2	Takashi Shimizu	—
2007	Ghost Rider	Mark Steven Johnson	—
	Spider-Man 3	Sam Raimi	Themes by Danny Elfman
	Lucky You	Curtis Hanson	—
	Shortcut to Happiness	Harry Kirkpatrick	Co-composed with Ramin Djawadi
2008	Untraceable	Gregory Hoblit	—
	Sleepwalking	William Maher	—
	The Informers	Gregor Jordan	—
2009	The Uninvited	The Guard Brothers	—
	Drag Me to Hell	Sam Raimi	—
	Creation	Jon Amiel	—
	Love Happens	Brandon Camp	—

2010s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2010	When in Rome	Mark Steven Johnson	—
	Gone with the Pope	Duke Mitchell	—
	The Black Tulip	Sonia Nassery Cole	—
2011	Priest	Scott Stewart	—
	Box of Shadows	Mauro Borrelli	—
	The Rum Diary	Bruce Robinson	—
2012	Sinister	Scott Derrickson	—
	Scary or Die	Bob Badway Michael Emanuel Igor Meglic	—
	The Baytown Outlaws	Barry Battles	—
2013	Killing Season	Mark Steven Johnson	—
	Gods Behaving Badly	Marc Turtletaub	—
	A Madea Christmas	Tyler Perry	—
2014	The Monkey King	Cheang Pou-soi	—
	The Single Moms Club	Tyler Perry	—
	Deliver Us from Evil	Scott Derrickson	—
2016	The Monkey King 2	Cheang Pou-soi	—
2019	Pet Sematary	Kevin Kölsch Dennis Widmyer	—

2020s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2020	The Empty Man	David Prior	—
2023	The Offering	Oliver Park	—
2023	The Piper	Erlingur Thoroddsen	—
2024	Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror		—

Television

Year	Title	Notes
2020	50 States of Fright	With Caleb Chan and Brian Chan
2022	Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities	—
2022	Echo 3	—

Video games

Year	Title	Notes
2009	The Saboteur	Theme music
2017	Wilson's Heart	—

References

^ "Christopher Young : The New York Times review". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
^ "BMI Film & Television Awards Tout Composers of Year's Top Film and Television Music". Bmi.com. 22 May 2008. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
^ "Bio". OfficialChristopherYoung.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^ "Christopher Young". Music.usc.edu. March 20, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2024.

External links

[1] "Christopher Young : The New York Times review". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved April 28, 2024.

[2] "BMI Film & Television Awards Tout Composers of Year's Top Film and Television Music". Bmi.com. 22 May 2008. Retrieved 2010-10-21.

[3] "Bio". OfficialChristopherYoung.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.

[4] "Christopher Young". Music.usc.edu. March 20, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2024.

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