Research: The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

Movies are only as good as their weakest link which is why sound is as important as the footage in a movie. Sound is used to enhance the emotion within a scene and therefore keep the audience drawn to the film. Most horror films use non-linear sound in the background of their scenes. A non-linear sound is a distorted noise which we cannot distinguish as something normal and are usually creating by using an instrument in the way it's not intended to be used. To also enhance the emotion within a scene, changing the pitch quite rapidly is also effective. It has also been discovered that in horror films you are typically more likely to hear a female scream unlike adventure films where its male. This is usually accompanied by a large non-linear noise to help scare the audience. Screams however are mostly used in teen horrors as in more dramatic movies low tones are applied to make scenes appear more mysterious thus creating tension.

Sound helps intensify the feeling of stress and tension withing the film. Sound helps to awake the feeling of terror as it is the most effective sense to do so. We rely on sound to trigger terror as our eyes are unreliable in dark areas which in most horror films is inevitable. The sound in horror films helps up trigger our fight or flight response which causes us to jump as we are more prone to jump at sound before light. 

Horrors use a range of sounds to trigger different moods in the audience, some examples vary from:

• Predatory - this sound mimics the sound of a predator and is used to make the audience feel uncomfortable.
• Broken silence - can use a sharp sound to cut the silence and scare the audience.
• Escalating noise - a sound that mimics something approaching.
• An incongruent sound - can be a nursery rhyme sung very slow or with an ominous background noise.
• Distortion - a sound unrecognisable that the audience cannot distinguish what it is.

The response you get from a scare releases dopamine which makes it enjoyable. Dopamine is a chemical carried around the brain which makes you feel happy, or in a state a peace. A lack or background sound during a horror would make it very displeasing as there is a lack of tension and nothing to aid the scares.

Examples of films that change when listened to without sound are below:

In this scene from the conjuring two you a first greeted with a ominous noise in the hallway of peoples making a"oo" sound with very ambiguous background noises. Throughout the time she walks down the hallway there is a very deep sound which is very human with the creepy female choir sound. This slowly fades away when the female character reaches the door and there is a long silence but all of the objects sounds like the door creaking is heightened. Towards the end there is a jump scare of some music being switched on at a very high volume. 




In this scene from the remake of "Poltergeist" there is a prolonged silence that lasts for about half of the scene which is there to make the audience feel uncomfortable. After the male character gets too close to the female character she turns around and screams at which point a loud orchestra sound plays to scare the audience.