Abstract
Every Halloween season, YouTube starts putting horror advertisements with jump scares in its videos, thus frightening unsuspecting users and following the tradition of spooky pranks. The video hosting service’s appreciation of screamers, a technique involving abrupt changes in the visual imagery accompanied by loud sounds, probably stems from jump scares’ status as the genre’s essence and an opportunity for promotion. Although jump scares are widely considered the central building block of horror multimedia content, in separation from other components of horror, their effectiveness is a challengeable statement. Despite the ability to cause relatively intense emotional responses, jump scares can also induce the feeling of predictability and the scantiness of means of expression in viewers. This essay argues that a successful horror movie creates a well-timed audio-visual presentation and builds suspense instead of relying on random jump scares to play on unexpectedness.
Introduction
In isolation from other horror elements, jump scares do not produce a significant emotional impact or induce enjoyment. At the same time, using the screamer technique on too many occasions or in rapid succession makes the movie predictable. Regarding enjoyment, Nummenmaa (2021) reports that repeated pairings of unpleasant scenes and jump scare elements within one film can generate fears, but overusing them can even lead to a humorous effect. Despite capturing the audience’s full attention immediately, jump scares flatten the viewer’s experience if used extensively (Allén, 2021). Screamers’ emotional influence hinges upon the exploitation of unexpectedness or suddenness, so any repetitions or predictable patterns of jump scare use can run counter to the intended emotional effect (Allén, 2021). One fact from research states that repeated exposure to audio-visual screamers in movies might cause desensitization to jump scares, especially in individuals scoring high on the Sensation Seeking scale (Villarreal, 2020). Considering that overused screamers do not produce the necessary psycho-emotional impact, it is essential to know how to amplify the feeling of dread without making jump scares overly predictable.
Jump Scares’ Emotional Effects on Viewers and the Role of Suspense
Some factors, including the creation of suspense, contribute to jump scares’ success in creating pronounced emotional responses in the audience. Interestingly, as per recent neuropsychology research, the skillful use of graphically violent scenes and other fear-inducing techniques intensifies a startle reflex reaction during jump scares, thus adding to their effectiveness (Nummenmaa, 2021). According to Villarreal (2020), the intense startle effect due to jump scares can be achieved in multimedia products, including video games and movies, that build suspense through atmospheric visual imagery, use of light, and proper composition. In addition, the suspense can be produced by making the viewer anticipate a jump scare anxiously, sometimes to no avail (Villarreal, 2020). In one study published in 2013, Mikos suggests that viewers’ pleasure from watching films intensifies if they have an impression that the so-called viewing contract is going to be violated by unexpected moves (Villarreal, 2020). Thus, focusing on anticipation and suspense, film creators can experiment with establishing signs suggesting sudden changes in the visual content and exposing the viewer to them for a prolonged time or using them deceitfully.
Media Aesthetics and Jump Scares
Aside from reasonableness and suspense, jump scares’ ability to induce fear also stems from the skillful use of media aesthetics. An effective jump scare should go far beyond a primitive reflex by resonating and being closely aligned with the context that surrounds a planned sudden change in the imagery (Hart, 2020). For the intense startle effect, screamers should appear in media works that use appropriate aesthetics highlighting the imaginary world’s unique atmosphere, including the use of light, composition, and proper timing (Fu, 2016; Villarreal, 2020). The required atmosphere can be achieved by darkened paths, the absence of monsters and supernatural creatures that are out of place or show up at inappropriate times, and appropriate sounds (Villarreal, 2020). Regarding timing, movies’ fear ratings demonstrate that combining relatively slow episodes with intense scenes containing screamers maximizes the viewer’s fear and positive experiences (Nummenmaa, 2021). Finally, due to its potential ability to induce fear, low-frequency sound beneath 20 Hz can be used to make the viewer uncomfortable even before the jump scare event, thus intensifying its effect (Nummenmaa, 2021). Therefore, screamers’ contributions to fear are closely related to diverse components of media aesthetics.
Conclusion
To sum up, from the example of YouTube, jump scares are still considered the central convention of the horror genre. Nevertheless, as research suggests, high-quality horror movies do not rely on mere surprise from screamers and utilize jump scares wisely and sparingly by making them aligned with the movie’s audio-visual content and the elements of suspense. Thus, the successful introduction of screamers requires excellent skills in maintaining optimal atmosphere by means of sound, proper timing, the use of light to create uncertainty, and aesthetic unity.
References
Allén, A. E. (2021). Creating an effective atmosphere for a horror game setup [Unpublished bachelor’s thesis]. South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.
Fu, X. (2016). Horror movie aesthetics: How color, time, space and sound elicit fear in an audience (Publication No. 10107562) [Master’s thesis, Information Design and Visualization Northeastern University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Hart, A. C. (2020). Monstrous forms: Moving image horror across media. Oxford University Press.
Nummenmaa, L. (2021). Psychology and neurobiology of horror movies.PsyArXiv, 1-29. Web.
Villarreal, J. A. (2020). On jump scares, enjoyment, and the dimensional theory of emotion: A media psychophysiology approach to enjoyment of horror video games [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Texas Tech University.