Research: The Importance of Sound in Horror Films

Sound in horror films plays a massive part in making the film scary, making the film a horror. There is wide range of music used in horror films from your slow, high pitched music to create eeriness to your fast paced, low pitched music to create an immediate sense of danger and threat. Sound in horror has the ability and power to create a sense of danger and vulnerability just from an every day activity such as opening a door to a room. During a horror film, there are many different factors which affect the type of sound that is used. For example, in a blood and guts film such as jaws you would expect to hear a faster paced, low pitch sound accompanying the visual while with a film such as children of the corn you would expect a slower paced, high pitched sound to be used to create the tension.

The purpose of sound in horror films is to create a certain atmosphere which allows the audience to connect with the film more deeply and emotionally. It also enhances the overall quality of the film. For example, I watched a horror film trailer without any sound in it and it completely took alll the horror film feel away from it and lost the films sense of purpose.

Doing some research I found that the sound used in the majority of horror films, no matter how disimilar they may sound, plays on the instinctive fears of people. This means no matter of how fearless the audience may be, deep down there will be a sense of anxiety from each and every person watching the film. The class of noises used have been labelled as 'non-linear' sounds.

Psycho, arguably the most iconic horror film of all time, uses sounds extremely affectively and the sound used in the film is almost as big as the film itself. The sound in psycho became so iconic by how it amazingly ties in with the story of the film. An example of how effective sound is in this film is the use of the famous shrieking, staccato violin in the shower scene. This sound massively enhances the scene with the stabbing violin in compliment to the assailant's attack with a knife.

Here below in the video are examples of the sound used in some of the most iconic horror films of all time.