10/23/2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For editorial consideration and full media distribution
Creature Fear Premieres at the 2025 Buried Alive Film Festival Featuring Antonio Romero’s Haunting, Nature-Inspired Score
The Austin-based composer blends organic and experimental sound design in a chilling exploration of nature, madness, and the human psyche.
AUSTIN, TX (October 25, 2025) — When Austin-based composer Antonio Romero encountered a violent scene in nature that felt as though it had been lifted straight from a horror film, he didn’t realize it would later spark ideas that would weave their way into the sonic fabric of Creature Fear—a horror movie set to premiere at the 2025 Buried Alive Film Festival.
Creature Fear is a gory, slow-burn psychological thriller written and directed by Manny Gumina. The story follows Charlie, a Chicago musician seeking a quiet escape at his family’s lake house, where plans to collaborate with an aspiring local singer unravel after a desperate stranger’s arrival. As paranoia and violence spread through the isolated community, the film explores the blurred line between human and animal instinct—set against the backdrop of an infectious sickness transmitted through deer-meat consumption.
A Soundscape That Breathes, Stalks, and Unsettles
Antonio Romero’s original score builds a haunting sonic world using organic and experimental textures inspired by the film’s deer-hunting setting. In Creature Fear, human nature itself becomes the monster—and Romero’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.
Romero incorporates manipulated deer calls, antler percussion, and processed field recordings with raw acoustic instruments to evoke the unsettling tension of nature turning against itself. The outcome is a visceral, immersive sound world that mirrors the film’s psychological unease and descent into madness.
The Sound of Fear: In the Hunt for Inspiration
Romero lives in a neighborhood bordering a greenbelt on the outskirts of Austin, where the city collides with the splendor of the Texas wilderness and night creatures roam around his home studio. Sometimes he hears their sounds from inside the house; other times, nature reveals itself in its most savage form—like a scene straight out of a horror film.
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 later, 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,” says Romero.
He 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. For Romero, sound design is about turning the not-so-obvious into the spotlight—transforming the ordinary into something alive and unsettling, and turning everyday objects, even bones, into sound machines.
The Making of a Haunting Score
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, Romero translated that raw energy into sound: antlers clashing became percussion, hunting whistles evolved into tense, unsettling motifs, and granular synths reshaped field recordings into textures that felt both natural and primal.
“Sometimes, inspiration hides in the darkness—waiting to be heard.”
About Antonio Romero
Antonio Romero is a film composer and sound designer based in Austin, Texas, known for his emotionally charged and textural approach to scoring. His work blends organic instruments with experimental sound design to create distinctive atmospheres for film, television, and immersive media. Specializing in horror and psychological thrillers, Romero’s music explores tension, fragility, and the beauty within darkness—bringing emotional depth and cinematic resonance to every project he undertakes.
The original score for Creature Fear by Antonio Romero is now available on all major streaming platforms: https://distribute.avid.com/share/MTAwMDAwODI3MDY1
For more technical insights, practical tips, and behind-the-scenes videos on how he creates his nature-inspired sounds, visit his blog, Scored by Me.
https://scoredby.me/blog
Antonio Romero | Contacts:
imdb.me/scoredbyme
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scoredbyme/
https://www.instagram.com/scoredby_me/
About Creature Fear
Creature Fear will premiere on November 7th at the Buried Alive Film Festival in Atlanta, screening at the historic Plaza Theatre—a landmark cinema that has become the beating heart of Georgia’s horror community.
Written and directed by Manny Gumina, the film features performances by Natalie Gerene, Jarrod Langwinski, and Billy Chengary, with cinematography by Derek Schmitt and editing by award-winning editor Chris Davies.
https://creaturefearfilm.com/
About Buried Alive Film Festival (BAFF)
Now approaching its 20th anniversary, the Buried Alive Film Festival (BAFF) celebrates underground filmmaking and independent horror. Rooted in a DIY spirit, BAFF has grown into Georgia’s largest horror film festival while remaining true to its mission: uniting filmmakers, fans, and genre lovers who thrive on the strange, the terrifying, and the unexpected. The festival continues to champion bold creative voices and provide an inclusive platform for diverse storytellers in horror and sci-fi.
https://buriedalivefilmfest.com/
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