Let’s start with what you are almost guaranteed to see when you enter into a horror move. People doing stupid things. They are running up stairs instead of outside. They are locking themselves in rooms and hoping the killer goes away. They are the idiots that keep the plot moving.

But is that just it? Do they preform stupid actions just to keep the plot moving, or is there more to it? Yes… and also no. For the “no” let’s take the cliché flat tire scene.

Now, I’m hoping every single one of you realizes that a flat tire on a car is not the same as a broken leg on a horse. If you can’t change the tire, are all alone, have no way to call for help, and it’s dark and scary you do indeed have no escape… unless of course you remember that your car still actually WORKS just fine.

Drive it.

You may ruin your rims but at least you’ll be the one wearing your skin in the morning, not some dude whose resume just says 'I OWN A CHAINSAW!'

I’m not going to go into a list or rules here, that’s for October as well, but please, please, please realize that shady hotels, roads, houses, people, and demonic portals to hell should all be worthy causes to ruin your rims or at least ATTEMPT to change the flat tire, I swear it’s not as hard as you might think.

Now for the “yes.” See, sometimes the characters do something purely for tension. Think about it. If you’re walking alone in the woods and all you here are ambient noises of crickets and birds, you’re not scared. When the camera angle changes and represents the view of something or someone following you THEN you start jumping at small noises and hugging yourself.

I love this cliché because you know there is the giant heavy camera, the camera operator, someone else making sure the camera operator doesn’t trip on or pull out cords, someone possibly holding a boom mike, and maybe even someone else leading the camera operator along so he doesn’t fall and ruin the six hundred thousand dollar camera, as well as people controlling the lighting and in standby unless the actors forget lines or blocking.

If all that is following you around the woods you are going to laugh your butt of, but the actor has to pretend to be scared and ... well, sometimes they just fail.

Now, beck to the ambient forest. Insert a sudden scream, a cry, a howl, or maybe even a growl. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up and your muscles tense. WTF was THAT? It was… a scary noise. The noise jump scare gets your heart pounding and I wish I could make a Carebear pop out of the screen and scream right now to prove that you’ll still get a bit scared, but I can’t do that so just know there is a spider less than four feet away from you, hiding and waiting for you to sleep. It was reaching a leg toward the back of your neck just a second ago, but it knew you were about to become aware of it. Now it’s just biding its time. You’re welcome.

Anyway, loud noises in situations where you want things to be quiet are terrifying. The actor is running to escape from the killer, so she screams and groans and grunts and when she hides she whimpers or cries or breaths heavily. She might be bad at acting, or it’s intentional. Your brain is screaming for her or even him to shut up before the murderer hears them. And that is when the director wins.

The minute your brain jumps into the film your heart beat changes just a bit, you become a little stiffer, and you stop blinking as much- meaning it is sooo much easier to throw a jump scare at you. If horror movies scare you, look out for these moments and you can predict the jump scare. It the camera still for one second after frantically moving? Is the character about to look in a new direction or open a door or back up without looking? JUMP SCARE!

The volume is intentional. Haunted houses often play soundtracks of screams because loud sounds are scary. The actors making the loud sounds when they should be quiet is intentional because they want to pull you into the movie as you think about how stupid the character is being. Not the actor, you’re not thinking ‘you’re a bad actor, that noise is too much’ you’re thinking ‘be quiet. He’ll hear you!’
That’s it for now, more in the next newsletter.