Bizarre shit happens in Blair Witch 2, but all of the “scary” bits usually just focus on a loud noise, whether it’s a sound effect or scream, coming out of nowhere or a strange image popping up for a few seconds. In both of those movies, the directors seems to rely almost exclusively on jump scares to frighten the audience. When I think of a bad horror movie, my mind usually goes to classic flicks like The Bye Bye Man or Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.
JUMMP SCARES HOW TO
What a bad horror director does is they don’t understand how to effectively create that tension. The fact remains that jump scares allow the audience to prepare themselves for a shift in tone inside the movie’s universe. Now whether that change is going from buildup to action or buildup to normalcy is besides the point.
![jummp scares jummp scares](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fn5BoN1CMGI/maxresdefault.jpg)
A jump scare signifies a change in the movie. A competent horror director will create tension, build on it continuously without any scares, then release all of that built up tension in one moment.
![jummp scares jummp scares](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BkwYBEvlO94/maxresdefault.jpg)
Their purpose is a fairly simple one the immediate release of pressure. In my mind, jump scares are a valuable tool in the horror director’s toolbox. I would like to argue that not only do jump scares have a place in horror movies, but they can create some of the best scares in any given horror movie. It’s a tool that doesn’t need to be used because you can create effective horror without ever needing to use it. If horror movies like The Babadookand The Witch can create a horrifying atmosphere without ever resorting to jump scares, then the very idea of a jump scare is a useless tool.
JUMMP SCARES MOVIE
Either way you slice it, the majority of bad horror movies tend to resort to jump scares as their main tricks and even major horror movies tend to use them every now and then.įor most people, the very idea of a jump scare is enough to invalidate a movie based solely on principle. They’re those moments where something will pop out and yell “BOO” to get a cheap shock moment out of the viewer, or give them a false scare by having a loud sound effect chime in to startle you. We’ve all had our experiences with jump scares, whether we like it or not. What usually happens though is that a director will take the easy way out of scaring its audience they’ll resort to jump scares. If you’re making a movie that relies on special effects, you better be sure that they’re up to snuff or else your movie is going to be mocked and ridiculed (see The Haunting). If the actual concept isn’t terrifying, then it’s going to be an uphill battle to get audiences into a state of fear and panic. There can be a lot of reason why a horror movie isn’t scary. When the entire purpose of your movie is to scare people and you fail to do that, then it’s hard to deny that the movie completely failed at its job. There’s nothing worse than a horror movie that isn’t scary.