When composer Antonio Romero encountered a violent scene in nature that felt as if it were lifted straight from a horror film, little did he know it would later spark ideas that would find their way into the sonic fabric of Creature Fear, a horror movie soon to premiere at Buried Alive Film Festival.

He lives in Austin, where night creatures roam around his studio. Sometimes he hears their sounds from inside the house; other times, nature reveals itself in the most savage way—like a scene straight out of a gore movie.

One quiet Texas night, around 3 a.m., a pack of coyotes attacked and killed a deer right in his front yard. The next morning, he found the remains scattered across the grass—evidence of a brutal hunt that had unfolded while the rest of the neighborhood slept. Watching the security footage, he saw the chaos play out in eerie silence: shadows moving through the darkness, glints of eyes, a struggle between life and death.

It was horrifying, disturbing, and sad—yet strangely inspiring.

Antonio draws inspiration from paying close attention to his surroundings: the way environments breathe, the rhythm of the unnoticed, and the subtle tension between stillness and movement. To him, sound design is about turning the not-so-obvious into the spotlight, transforming the ordinary into something unsettling and alive—as well as turning everyday objects, and even bones, into sound machines.

That night in Texas became the seed for the Creature Fear score. The film’s world, rooted in deer hunting and rural isolation, mirrored the primal violence he had witnessed. In his score, Antonio translated that raw energy into sound: antlers clashing became percussion, hunting whistles turned into tense, unsettling motifs, and granular synths reshaped field recordings into textures that felt both natural and primal.

In Creature Fear, human nature itself becomes the monster, and Antonio’s score gives it a voice. The result is a soundscape that breathes, stalks, and unsettles—pulling audiences into the uneasy space where instinct meets the wild.

Sometimes, inspiration hides in the darkness—waiting to be heard.

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