A Maniac hides his bloody tracks by imitating the murders of society’s most infamous
serial killers. Only two women can stop him. Dr. Hudson (Sigourney Weaver), is the
criminal psychologist who’s a prisoner of her own fear, chained inside her apartment
by the memory of a lunatic’s brutal assault. M.J. (Holly Hunter) is the intuitive
homicide detective who must first challenge her own department’s bureaucracy before
she can stop an untraceable wave of death. COPYCAT is the relentless game of wits that
ensues between these forces of evil and justice, a gripping chase that thrusts audiences
into the brain of a psychopath. It’s a terrifying realm to explore, yet no one
understands, or seems to enjoy a madman’s id like composer Christopher Young.
Just as COPYCAT’s killer takes delight in
paying grisly tribute to his idols, Young’s chillingly suspenseful music uses melody
like a knife. His sharp, brooding strings create tension as he weaves a spider’s web
with ghostly voices and unearthly synthesizers. Then, Young pounces in for the kill with
piercing themes and breathless percussion, the audience’s fear given musical life.
Christopher Young’s work has a level of
intensity and innovation that make his score uniquely terrifying. While Young has composed
for every subject from the courtroom (MURDER IN THE FIRST, JUDICIAL CONSENT) to rural drama (BRIGHT ANGEL,
AMERICAN HARVEST) and explosive action (VIRTUOSITY,
RAPID FIRE), it’s the numerous soundtracks that Young has
written for horror and suspense films that have made his greatest impact on Hollywood.
Scoring his first thriller while studying at UCLA under David Raskin (LAURA), Young
quickly rose from low budget shocker to compose HELLRAISER and
it’s sequel HELLBOUND. These symphonies for the devil
immediately marked him as one of the genre’s most formidable talents. Young’s
combination of black choral masses, shrieking dissonance and the chimes of music box
created Clive Barker’s Inferno.
The genre provided Young with a training ground
for the most uncanny experiments. While he contributed score to such popular series as THE FLY 2 and A NIGHMARE ON ELM STREET 2, Young
also pushed the surrealistic limits of film scoring with his abstract sounds for INVADERS FROM MARS and HAUNTED SUMMER, the
unhinged carnival instruments of THE VAGRANT and the mournful
voices which filled THE DARK HALF and FLOWERS
IN THE ATTIC.
When Christopher Young puts listeners in peril,
there’s no mistaking his music’s lush Gothic style, or the fearsome psychology
behind it. Whether the villain is SPECIES sexual predator, JENNIFER 8’s vengeful cop, or the schizoid killer of COPYCAT,
Christopher Young captures the sound of murder. COPYCAT finds its best notes in the
darkest shadows of human nature. And when the theater lights go down, no composer scares
us like Christopher Young.
