How Horror Movie Scores Scare You

It’s All About Fight or Flight

Horror movie score creators use familiar instruments but process them to the point of becoming something else.

The sounds are usually in the form of a deep rumble or a high pitched squeal, immediately signalling danger.

These high pitched squeals sound like animal calls, women screaming, and babies crying, which immediately trigger our fight or flight system.

Horror classics such as The Shining use these tones to build suspense in audiences.

These sounds are often buried subtly under the rest of the score to help pull viewers into films.

Again the goal is to trigger the audiences’ fight or flight response.

In Friday the 13th, “Ch ch ch Ha ha ha” is used throughout the film.

This warns viewers that Jason is around the corner, and something bad is about to happen on screen.

It also gives the feeling that Jason is in the room with us.

In fact, if you isolate Jason’s vocals in the movie, you can hear him breathing.

When combined with the surrounding score and visuals, we are taken to a creepy place.

Horror Movie Scores Balancing Tension & Revulsion

Horror movie scores balance tension and revulsion to create an uneasy feeling in audiences.

This balance requires timing.

Cue the revulsion too early, and the audience doesn’t have enough time to build suspense.

String instruments are masters of suspense because they hold notes for an unusually long time.

Layering strings on top of each other creates an unsettling effect.

Directors want audiences to remain unsettled and uncomfortable,

They keep dialling up the discomfort until the crescendo hits, and revulsion takes over.

Horror Movie Scores & Tritone Notes

Tritone notes are also added to scores.

These are unsettling notes in music because they have no resolution.

To make them scarier, tritones are also known as the devils interval.

They trigger disheveled firing patterns in the auditory cortex creating an uneasy feeling even when nothing quite scary is happening on screen.

A Horror Movie Score’s Silent Killer

Another terrifying sound, a silent killer of sorts, is Infrasound.

These sounds are so low in frequency they cannot be heard.

Infrasound exists at 19HZ and below.

Humans begin to hear sound at 20HZ.

Infrasound exists in nature from wind, earthquakes & avalanches.

In essence, sound is what makes us become passive participants in horror movies, taking us from the comfort of our living rooms to the terror on screen.