Composer Sherri Chung admits she was late to the “Gremlins” party — only because she was too young and found it too scary. But when she grew older and was reintroduced to the movie, she thought “it was the greatest thing ever.”
The 1984 film, as well as Jerry Goldsmith’s score, became a key inspiration for her. So when she got the opportunity to score Max’s new animated series “Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai,” directed by Tze Chun, she decided to “lean into the scary and the fear, but also the emotion” with her music.
The series is an origin story that gives a partial explanation as to how Gizmo ends up in a Chinatown antique store at the beginning of 1984’s “Gremlins.” To add a Chinese element to the score, Chung used bamboo flutes, but the meat of the score came from the erhu, a two-stringed bowed musical instrument sometimes referred to as the “Chinese violin.”
“It has such a range of beauty and emotion. It can be dramatic and also very expressive,” Chung says. “That was what I used the most to give us a sense of authenticity and place us in a certain period. But there was also a certain mythical quality that lends itself well to the soaring melodies.”
As for creating character motifs and cues, when it came to Matthew Rhys’ antagonist Riley Greene, a man who seeks Gizmo for his own selfish purposes, Chung says, “I played him as big as he thinks he is. He’s so full of himself. But, he’s also a fearsome character and the epitome of a villain.”
So she filled his sonic environment with big instruments, brass, percussion and lots of metals: “Anything that could be used to emulate how large, menacing and how dangerous he really is.”
But it was through 10-year-old Sam Wing (Izaac Wang) and Gizmo’s themes that Chung paid homage to Goldsmith’s score. “I did it through ‘Gizmo’s Lullaby.’ It was in those heartfelt moments when Gizmo is at his cutest but also when he’s with Sam,” she says. She used a clarinet, flute and softer woodwind instruments to bring out the “vulnerable side of Sam and his relationship with Gizmo.”
Listen to cues from “Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai” below.
