Research: The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

Music has the ability to set the tone for how a scene will play out. Horror films generally rely on music to set the mood of a scene; if the desired feeling is tension then low drum sounds would be used at a slow tempo that gradually speeds up to the desired point when the suspense is over.

Different sounds and music, which creates certain atmosphere, allowing us to experience movie more deeply and emotionally. In horror movies, music is very important to create that certain atmosphere of tension and suspense. The first 'talkie' horror movie was also only the second sound film made by Warner Bros – The Terror (1928), which used a Vitaphone sound disc, filled with effects such as creaky doors. So the importance of sound in establishing mood was never in doubt within the film industry, and it continues to work in such well-crafted films as The Babadook (2014). 

       

            

Lots of voices in horror films have been chosen to reflect fear and panic. An example of this is Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy's voice is deep and scratchy, which doesn't sound natural.

            

Sound is very important in all types of films, if you can't hear what's supposed to be happening in the film, then all you're watching is a series of clips put together. If you only hear the sound, then you can only picture what may be happening. But with the both of them together, it creates the emotions that the director and composer wants you to feel. The steady increase of the strings in this clip of 'The Dark Knight' highlights the tension and unease that the scene is supposed to create.

            

Scientists have found that many of the emotionally-evocative moments in some of the most popular films are enhanced with a sound score that exploits the human brain's natural aversion to the "non-linear" sounds widely used in the animal kingdom to express fear and distress.
Sounds are classed as non-linear when they become too loud for the normal musical range of an instrument or an animal's vocal cords. Alternatively, they can be produced by the sudden frequency changes of acoustic instruments.
The film Psycho uses these techniques to create petrifying scenes.

                            

Alfred Hitchcock used sharp, high-pitch, non-linear sounds in order to replicate distress calls of wild animal. This triggers a distinctive fear within the human brain.
Fear is also activated through the means of:
Isolated Instruments - which are often used before a key event and links the idea of vulnerability to the audience.
Long, suspenseful notes - This increases the audiences anxiety levels as the tension gradually increases (this also increases adrenaline), when long notes are contrasted with short, sharp notes, it shocks the audience.
Pitch tone changes - For instance, low, sustained strings which suddenly change to sharp, high-pitched notes - this makes the audience feel immediately tense.
Rapid sound sequence - This conveys the feeling of stress and panic. It also results in the audience being anxious.
By using a combination of these techniques, producers are able to create musical scores, which the audience then associates with fear, such as Jaws and The Exorcist.
When the non-diagetic sound is removed, the tension and fear is also lost. This highlights the significance of sound within horror films because it determines how scary the film actually is.