Main Task Research: The importance of sound in Horror films

Sound in horror movies is very important to build up tension and create an eerie threatening atmosphere that gets the audience on the edge of their seats. Sound is important at all times in a horror movie whether it is during the introduction, halfway through the film or at the ending. Sound determines the success and failure of creating a scary tense atmosphere, for example a song like this would never make it into a horror movie.



The main types of music associated with horror movies are original scores for the film (e.g Halloween opening theme song) or heavy metal music (e.g The Freddy vs Jason soundtrack). Sound used to create the appropriate atmosphere includes a slow tempo that gradually gets faster as seen in Jaws. Music like that gets the audience's adrenaline pumping through their system therefore they feel either anxious or exhilirated which is the mood that the director wants the audience to feel. The deep bass rumble that is cliche for tension building moments in horror movies always gets the audience on the edge of their seat in anticipation of something about to happen whether it be a killer or just a fake scare. Horror movies are also praised for their chilling emphasis on sound.







The genre of music most likely to be utilised in a horror movie is Metal e.g Slipknot. The reason for this is that heavy metal and rock is associated with violence and death as people's perception of metal bands and fans are that they are really dark, psychotic, strange and violent and horror is what they associate with this sort of music. Examples of metal used in horror can be seen in the adaptation of Anne Rice's novel 'Queen of the Damned (2002)' in which bands such as Disturbed and Static X are used for the soundtrack with the songs 'Down with the sickness' and 'Cold'. A heavy metal soundtrack is also used in Resident Evil (2002) with Slipknot and Marilyn Manson the two main acts behind the soundtrack with Slipknot providing a new mix of "My Plague". Horrors grew out of the original score trend and entered into using music already recorded as seen in Freddy vs Jason (2003) (A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th along with Halloween were quite famous for their original music). Here is the opening song to Freddy vs Jason.