When John Schuermann’s score for The Creep Behind the Camera first started playing, it seemed that we were in for a standard ’50s science fiction score. In other words: there’s theremin, theremin, theremin! That’s to say nothing of larger-than-life brass sections that blare warnings of the incoming alien threat.
And if you like your science fiction soundtracks loaded with eerie sounds of otherworldly creepiness, then you will find much to adore in what John Schuermann has done with his score for The Creep Behind the Camera. Given as the film is about the making of the notoriously-bad 1954 film, The Creeping Terror, parts of Schuermann’s score do nod to those ’50s sci-fi films. At points, Schuermann works in the realm of Bernard Herrmann, with the main title being the track to most obviously reference Herrmann’s score for The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Rather than work entirely in bombastic brass and sinuous waves of electronics, though, the composer’s work on The Creep Behind the Camera bounces along mightily. Given the intrigue, back-biting, and other nefarious acts perpetrated by Art J. Nelson, the noir aspects of I Love Stalking Lucy or A Monster in Hiding are quite appropriate.
The score also has a fun side, reflecting the mad caper aspects of the film with cocktail lounge, such as I Think They’re Moving Away, and most definitely on the exotica of The Mambo Behind the Creep. It’s all very fun, and what Schuermann created is a score that pays due to every aspect of a film that is equal parts biopic, B-movie sci-fi, and noir thriller.
The only downside is that each and every aspect of the score is a reference to some other work. Even the one cut that operates in a more modern vein, Who Saved You From Your Mother?, is essentially standard horror movie fare, the likes of which scores the trailer for every slasher to come out in the last decade. Schuermann does what he does very well, but his influences are so readily apparent, The Creep Behind the Camera‘s score is more tribute album than anything else.
THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA (2014) / COMPOSER: JOHN SCUERMANN / LABEL: MOVIESCORE MEDIA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (DIGITALLY), SEPTEMBER 11TH (CD)
