What Makes Horror Movies Scary

WHAT MAKES HORROR MOVIES SCARY Name: Institution:Date: Horror movie genre has increasingly increased its fanbase over the years and the directors have continually found ways to make their creative pieces scarier for maximum thrill of its audiences. A good horror movie will move the audience to the edge of their seats, make the hair on the back of their necks to stand, their hearts to pump faster or make them curl or close their eyes in fear. In some cases, they can be secretly be warning the characters not to ‘go in there’ and sympathize with some characters. For the sake of creating horror, horror movie directors and writers devote much time into figuring out new elements that could enhance the quality of their work to bring excitement and frightfulness. “Horror lovers” would perhaps feel disappointed while the horror is not scary enough to make to their expectations. As we come along with the conclusion of why people enjoy horror, I would like to explore what makes one horror is scarier than another in terms of techniques and themes in order to attract the audience. For such a long history of horror, either horror movie or story have greatly developed into new stages that are different from the earliest one in history. Many techniques that had not been invented in the past have huge impacts on forming the modern form of horror. In this essay, those techniques would be explored from different media and scholar studies. To examine what certain elements create better horror movies, it is essential for us to know what is the good horror and how do we define a good horror. According to the dictionary, Merriam-Webster, since 1828, the definition of horror represents painful and intense fear, dread or dismay; intense aversion or repugnance. Thus, the horror must create intense fear, so that it could make the audience feel extremely uncomfortable. Without the fear or the intensity, we could not say horror is qualified or it is good horror. In my word, I would define a good horror to be a media that would not only bring the audience an intense sense of fear but also leave the horror impression to the audience.[Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. n.d. Horror. Accessed April 19, 2019. -webster.com/dictionary/horror] Darkness and Scary places This is why most horror movies will be set up in poorly lit areas or in tunnels, basements which are naturally dark. In some cases, the directors ‘causes’ the lights to malfunction by either strike of lighting or batteries dying in the middle of pursuit or escape of the enemy which in most cases is a disfigured being out to kill in the most gruesome way possible. The lighting makes the audience sympathize and fear for the safety of the character. With poor visibility, comes less certainty of our environment and therefore anxiety and fear for our lives. As humans, we have come to heavily rely on our sight to make sense of our environment and darkness robs us that ability. When we are in darkness, there is a natural discomfort that comes with it and to some people fear. Movie directors use this natural disposition of our abhorrence for darkness to make some scenes scary. The directors try to trick the brains of the audience into relating to the setting and or a scene. Movie directors tend to meticulously create relatable experiences to the audience by tapping into the natural fears. Horror artists typically want to target the greatest possible audience and that means targeting the most common fears. By tapping into the phobias most people have, the directors trick the brain of the viewers to relate to being in a similar environment with elements that trigger fight or flight response. The directors also use poor lighting or darkness which heightens the human primal fear of darkness. Human brains have evolved to fear darkness since we have poor visibility in the dark and historically such factors limited survival chances1. When an individual is in a dark place, he/she cannot visually understand his/her environment and that triggers fear. Horror movies are scarier if you watch them in a dark theatre or in the night because the brain is able to relate to the lack of lighting and the uncertainty that comes with it. Their brains can relate to being in a dark environment and the uncertainties that come with such an environment coupled with the possibility of a danger lurking in the dark makes the audience share in the feeling of an actor in a dark environment or with poor lighting. The goal of the director is to ‘teleport’ the audience into the setting or share the experience of the actor in that scene or setting. The brains of the audiences’ start to relate to the presence of the environment and triggers their natural reaction which in most cases increase in blood flow and adrenaline.[Clasen, Mathias. 2017. How Evolution Designed Your Fear. October 26. Accessed April 19, 2019. http://nautil.us/issue/53/monsters/how-evolution-designed-your-fear.] People tend to fear some places even in the real world. Places such as graveyards, old houses, overgrown forests, dungeons, attics, basements etc make most people ‘uncomfortable’ and the directors tend to leverage on these places to make their work scarier. Graveyards leverage on our innate fear of death. Setting a scene in a graveyard triggers an unwanted feeling and the reminder of the death of either oneself or of a loved one. For basements and dungeons, the directors understand that many people fear darkness and it is also the habitat of many crawling things such as spiders. Humans have an existential fear rooted in evolution and have come to associate some places with the likelihood of having crawly things such as spiders, scorpions etc and these things trigger our innate fears. When the audience relates to the fear of the actor in that setting by wearing their shoes, it triggers their innate phobias. People feel uncomfortable when not in control of the existential threats that may be in their environment and horror movie directors tend to create the scenes in a way that increase the uncertainty of the environment. Our familiarity of these places and the natural fear we have about them is the very reason why horror movie directors tend to capitalize on them to elicit fear. They know we have been to such places and most likely some of them are in and around our places of residence and since we have naturally grown to fear them especially in the dark, they capitalize on them to elicit fear.[Roach, John. 2001. Fear of Snakes, Spiders Rooted in Evolution, Study Finds. October 4. Accessed April 19, 2019. /science/2001/10/fear-evolution-spiders-science/.] Sounds Sounds is another critical element that is used to create horror. The horror film genre is one of the few film genres sounds play a role equal to that of the visual. Sound adds a new sensory receptor (ears) to the movie and triggering fear using this new sensory receptor compounds the visual receptor. Music intensifies feelings of suspense and shock. Mostly, the directors work with sound engineers to create spooky music which sets the mood and elicit emotions. It heightens the scariness of the scene by creating similar sounds that accentuate the actions on the screen. For example, in an overgrown forest, they can use ‘breaking branches’ sounds to make the scene more realistic. The tone of the music in itself elicits fear and the tone compounds the scariness of a scene. Each sound and or music complements the setting. Most of the sounds in the movie are specifically engineered to complement the action, setting or scene. A sudden loud sound in the dark tends to heighten the senses that something is lurking in the darkness and it could potentially harm or kill the individual. Since the audience shares in the environment of the actor, the sounds tend to trigger a fear response from the audience.[Shehan, Emma. 2016. "Sound, Screams, and the Score: An Exploration of Sound in Classic Horror Slashers." Journal of Art and Culture 5: 1-6.] Sounds are also used to evoke fear in the audience. Throughout a horror movie, there are sounds that accompany scenes to make the scene scarier. Directors understand the kind of sounds that audience fear and science backs them up on this. The sounds are usually unusual and they are mostly high-pitched and signal danger if not actually leading to danger. In a study conducted by the Royal Society Biology Letters found out that humans and other vertebrates are predisposed to be emotionally affected by animal yells, human baby cries, and other noises that may sound harsh and are unpredictable. Most cases they are distressed animal signals and they are particularly matched to a certain character such that they match for maximum effect on the audience. If it is a dragon, it will be characterized with loud roar rather than a high-pitched scream and if it is a woman or a child being at...