We chat with composer Christian Davis talks about his score for Behind You…
After moving in with their estranged aunt (Jan Broberg), two young sisters (Addy Miller & Elizabeth Birkner) find that all the mirrors are either covered or hidden in the house. What could possibly go wrong with uncovering them? Well for starters, they could release a malicious demon that haunted their mother and aunt years ago. This is the premise for Vertical Entertainment’s upcoming horror flick Behind You that is getting released on VOD April 17th, 2020. Every good horror film needs a good score to accompany it, Behind You being no exception, thanks to composer Christian Davis. Davis’s score not only heightens the terror, but also adds another level of emotion to the main characters. Ahead of the film’s release we spoke with Davis about many topics including what instruments were crucial in the Behind You score to his work on the series Dwight and Shining Armor. It was recently announced that Davis’s Behind You score will be released digitally on April 21st, 2020.
How did you first become involved with Behind You?
I actually heard about it on Facebook. I saw all of the on-set photos people were posting and it looked amazing! So I reached out to Andrew (one of the directors) on Facebook, sent a cold DM, and told him I’d wanted to score his film. I sent him a curated reel with my best horror music, then convinced him to grab a coffee where I pitched him my idea for the score and I got the gig!
We heard the house in Behind You plays a big role in the film, almost like another character. Did you give the house specific themes like you would a main character?
The very first scene of the movie has a little music box playing on screen, and that’s where we establish the “Mother’s Theme.” The mother’s theme is really the house/demon’s theme, I just call it that because Claire think’s it’s her Mother speaking to her from beyond the grave. It’s like a siren’s call that seduces its listeners and tells our audience that our characters are being tempted and/or possessed by the demon spirit that possesses the house. This theme gets played throughout the film by different instruments and gets more and more twisted sonically the deeper and darker we go.
What instruments did you find were key in this particular story to set the tone or musical theme you were striving to achieve for Behind You?
It’s a very orchestral score, so the foundation is lots of aleatoric orchestral fx stuff. Then the special sauce would be: music box, female vocals, kitchen percussion, tea kettle hisses, chainsaw and woody downward bends.
In your formative years you toured China in a musical theater show band. Did you learn anything in particular during that time that you now apply to your scores, or even specifically Behind You?
I definitely learned to be adaptable. I was playing all sorts of fretted instruments in the pit (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, banjo, mandolin). And it was sort of a “best of” musical theater group so we were performing songs from various musicals (Les Miserables, The Lion King, Wicked, Oklahoma). I also learned to eat fish eyes… a Chinese delicacy.
You have another horror film coming out next month title The Voices. Can you tell us a little bit about your work on that?
You bet! I was lucky to work with my good friend & director, Wes Alley. He put together a really great psychological horror film. I also co-composed this score with my good friend Reuven Herman, which is always fun to collaborate with another artist. The Voices is a psychological-horror, so the antagonist is really our lead characters mental health as she begins to doubt her reality. The score is very different than Behind You. Less orchestral, less jump scare. More piano, synth and string quartet. A smaller, more intimate sound.
Being that The Voices is in the same genre as Behind You, how do you keep each project feeling fresh?
The first thing I always do when starting a new film is to build a new “sound palette.” This involves removing all of the “unique” sounds I made for the last film from my template and developing new sounds for the new film. It also involves thinking and composing some “big picture” ideas about what the film should sound like before getting into the nitty gritty of composing cues.
You have scored everything from horror films (“Behind You”) to Christmas movies (“Christmas Eve”). Is one genre more challenging than others for you?
Hmm, good question. Each genre presents its own challenges, but I think the most challenging thing is to score only one genre of film over and over again. After I finish a horror film, all I want to do is score something very different, a comedy, a drama, etc… it acts as sort of mind palette cleanse. I go away and do a Christmas movie, then back to a horror and I’m full of new ideas!
You score the series Dwight and Shining Armor. Season 3 will be premiering later this year, did you get to experiment with anything different, musically, in this upcoming season? If so, can you talk a little bit about it?
Yes, season 3 is actually streaming now for free on the BYUtv app and website. Something fun for the whole family to watch during your coronavirus quarantine! Season 3 of Dwight takes us through some darker, scarier stuff with the resurrection of the evil Tovinars, so I got to lean into my horror chops a bit. Besides that, each episode still takes us musically from witchy medieval comedy, to magical orchestra to Celtic punk rock. It’s such a fun show to write!
Was there a recent film you watched where the score particularly stuck out to you?
Oh man, what Hildur Guðnadóttir did for the Joker was just phenomenal. It’s the perfect example of how much a score can influence a movie. She was such an integral part of telling that story. So good!!
Learn more about Christian here: https://www.christiandavismusic.com/
Many thanks to Christian Davis for taking the time for this interview.
