# 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 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.

## Discography
### 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 | — |
| 1982 | 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 | — |
| 1984 | The Oasis | Sparky Greene | — |
| 1985 | Avenging Angel | Robert Vincent O'Neil | — |
| 1985 | Def-Con 4 | Paul Donovan | Replacement score |
| 1985 | Barbarian Queen | Héctor Olivera | Tracked music – Credit shared with James Horner |
| 1985 | Wizards of the Lost Kingdom | Héctor Olivera | Tracked music – Credit shared with James Horner |
| 1985 | 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. |
| 1985 | Wheels of Fire | Cirio H. Santiago | — |
| 1985 | A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge | Jack Sholder | — |
| 1986 | Getting Even | Dwight H. Little | — |
| 1986 | Torment | Samson Aslanian John Hopkins | — |
| 1986 | Invaders from Mars | Tobe Hooper | — |
| 1986 | Trick or Treat | Charles Martin Smith | — |
| 1987 | Hellraiser | Clive Barker | — |
| 1987 | Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans | Jim Wynorski | Additional music – Tracked music |
| 1987 | Flowers in the Attic | Jeffrey Bloom | — |
| 1987 | 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 | — |
| 1988 | Bat*21 | Peter Markle | — |
| 1988 | Haunted Summer | Ivan Passer | — |
| 1988 | Hellbound: Hellraiser II | Tony Randel | — |
| 1989 | The Fly II | Chris Walas | — |
| 1989 | 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 | — |
| 1992 | Rapid Fire | Dwight H. Little | — |
| 1992 | 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 | — |
| 1995 | Tales from the Hood | Rusty Cundieff | — |
| 1995 | Species | Roger Donaldson | — |
| 1995 | Virtuosity | Brett Leonard | — |
| 1995 | Copycat | Jon Amiel | — |
| 1996 | Unforgettable | John Dahl | — |
| 1996 | Set It Off | F. Gary Gray | — |
| 1996 | Head Above Water | Jim Wilson | — |
| 1996 | 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 | — |
| 1998 | Hush | Jonathan Darby | — |
| 1998 | Rounders | John Dahl | — |
| 1998 | Judas Kiss | Sebastian Gutierrez | — |
| 1998 | Urban Legend | Jamie Blanks | — |
| 1998 | Playing by Heart | Willard Carroll | replacement for score by John Barry |
| 1999 | Entrapment | Jon Amiel | — |
| 1999 | In Too Deep | Michael Rymer | — |
| 1999 | The Big Kahuna | John Swanbeck | — |
| 1999 | The Hurricane | Norman Jewison | — |

#### 2000s

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2000 | Wonder Boys | Curtis Hanson | — |
| 2000 | Bless the Child | Chuck Russell | — |
| 2000 | The Gift | Sam Raimi | — |
| 2001 | Sweet November | Pat O'Connor | — |
| 2001 | Swordfish | Dominic Sena | — |
| 2001 | Scenes of the Crime | Dominique Forma | — |
| 2001 | The Glass House | Daniel Sackheim | — |
| 2001 | Bandits | Barry Levinson | — |
| 2001 | 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 | — |
| 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | Sam Raimi | Themes by Danny Elfman |
| 2007 | Lucky You | Curtis Hanson | — |
| 2007 | Shortcut to Happiness | Harry Kirkpatrick | Co-composed with Ramin Djawadi |
| 2008 | Untraceable | Gregory Hoblit | — |
| 2008 | Sleepwalking | William Maher | — |
| 2008 | The Informers | Gregor Jordan | — |
| 2009 | The Uninvited | The Guard Brothers | — |
| 2009 | Drag Me to Hell | Sam Raimi | — |
| 2009 | Creation | Jon Amiel | — |
| 2009 | Love Happens | Brandon Camp | — |

#### 2010s

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2010 | When in Rome | Mark Steven Johnson | — |
| 2010 | Gone with the Pope | Duke Mitchell | — |
| 2010 | The Black Tulip | Sonia Nassery Cole | — |
| 2011 | Priest | Scott Stewart | — |
| 2011 | Box of Shadows | Mauro Borrelli | — |
| 2011 | The Rum Diary | Bruce Robinson | — |
| 2012 | Sinister | Scott Derrickson | — |
| 2012 | Scary or Die | Bob Badway Michael Emanuel Igor Meglic | — |
| 2012 | The Baytown Outlaws | Barry Battles | — |
| 2013 | Killing Season | Mark Steven Johnson | — |
| 2013 | Gods Behaving Badly | Marc Turtletaub | — |
| 2013 | A Madea Christmas | Tyler Perry | — |
| 2014 | The Monkey King | Cheang Pou-soi | — |
| 2014 | The Single Moms Club | Tyler Perry | — |
| 2014 | 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 | 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 |
| 1987 | 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” |
| 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 | — |