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The Psychology Of Scary Movies

Horror films are movies in which the goal is to terrify, shock, or illicit feelings of disgust from the watching audience. They have been around since the late eighteen hundreds and sometimes overlap with other genres such as thriller. The term “horror” can be used to describe all kinds of different movies from ones involving ghosts to ones about murderers. What makes some scary movies scarier than others is often hard to gage as well.

The very first horror films were silent pieces about demons and ghosts. In the early nineteen hundreds, the first movie version of the novel Frankenstein came out and was very successful in terrifying audiences all over America and Europe. Most of the early full length scary movies were filmed in West Germany, who had, from the get go, expertly cornered the market. By the mid 30s, directors in the United States jumped into the mix with movies such as Dracula and The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

Different things scare different people but the producers and directors of the early twenties and thirties quickly discovered that factors such as eerie sound effects, suspense, and sudden plot twists were much more effective at frightening people than bloody guts and scary monsters.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to the horror genre was made by the world famous writer and director, Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout his long and successful career, he pioneered numerous techniques and methods that are still used in suspense and psychological films today. Hitchcock is considered to be one of the best directors in the world with most of his fifty feature films being considered absolute classics.

Alfred’s most famous early film, “Shadow of a Doubt” also happens to be one of the first psychological thrillers and the director’s personal favorite. The movie was so culturally significant that it was chosen to be included in the National Film Registry so that it’s spooky dialogue, overlapping characters, and criminal behavior could be watched and studied by movie enthusiasts for decades to come.

“Rear Window”, “Strangers on a Train”, “Vertigo”, and his other most well known projects were completed in the fifties. Each one of them showcased the director’s natural ability to use well placed spooky music, emotionally unstable characters, and intelligent plots to frighten an audience.

Although King Kong, Godzilla, and other monsters are scary, many of the most frightening horror and thriller films in the industry are the ones where the ‘monster’ is never seen. This was done expertly by the creators of a movie called “Rosemary’s Baby”, which alluded to and mentioned a demonic baby but kept its appearance from the audience. “Jaws”, “The Blair Witch Project”, and other films also used this popular technique. Directors could force their audiences to fear something even more by not showing it.

Using scary and well placed music is another effective and popular technique. The soundtrack of a film is sometimes the most powerful factor of all when it comes down to shocking people.