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What makes a story scary? by Courtney Bowerman
Horror movies just aren’t as scary as they
used to be. Most of the horror movies today are remakes of older
movies -- and the original movies are usually scarier. But what makes a movie
truly scary? I
don’t mean a film that will give you a mild scare; I’m talking
about a film so bone-chilling that to this day, you still cover your
eyes during certain parts. I’ve looked at movies that are
considered to be the scariest, and came up with a list of effective
scare factors: 1.
The element of surprise. The
less expected, the better. How many times have you jumped out
of your seat during a movie because the bad guy turned out to be alive
when you thought he was dead? Or because something popped up in
the middle of nowhere in a scene? Yes, this is a cliché,
but you can’t deny that it works. One of the most famous
examples of the surprise tactic is at the end of Halloween,
when the supposedly dead Michael Myers disappears after being shot and
falling out a window. Then he made it a joke with all of the
sequels when he keeps getting resurrected. (Editor's Note: Don't
forget the hand coming out of the grave in Brian DePalma's Carrie.) 2. Scenery. An
eerie-looking setting (old house, castle) at night never fails,
even if the haunted house story has grown tiresome. You always
feel a little more vulnerable when you’re in the dark. This
is why you should never go alone at night after watching a horror movie. You’ll
get the paranoid feeling that someone is following you. 3. Fear
of the ordinary. The best scary movies are the ones
that don’t
necessarily deal with the supernatural but have made the most innocent
and ordinary things menacing. Some of the most ridiculous
phobias were a direct result of horror films. After It,
more people were afraid of
clowns. Dolls
never looked the same again after Chucky made his début. Stephen
King has managed to make us afraid of cars and household pets. Even
children weren't safe. The Omen, Children
of the Corn, and The Exorcist made some of us swear
of babysitting for life. 4. Sinister
soundtrack. Half
of what made The Omen so creepy was the satanic “Santus
Dominus” choir. A scene in which someone gets killed is
so much scarier with music, although maybe doing it in complete silence
might be even creepier… 5. Vile
Villain. Whether
it’s a silent stalker like Michael Myers or a sadistic wisecracker
like Chucky or Freddy Krueger, the horror movie must have a terrifying
villain. I don’t know who would be
scared of a big, retarded goalie like Jason, even if he is super strong. 6. Religion. A
lot of people are afraid of eternal damnation, which explains why people
were so frightened by The Omen and The Exorcist. And
even if you’re an atheist, religion can still strike you as disturbing. Remember
the corpse that was spread out over a pentagram in The Da Vinci
Code? 7. Bodies,
bodies everywhere… Death is supposed to be a natural
part of life, but no one wants to see a dead body. However,
movies that spare no expense on gore tend to be more gross than
scary, at least in my opinion. 8. Isolation. The
greatest fear that many of us have is being alone. We can empathize
with a character who is home alone with no one to help them in their
hour of need. I spend a lot of time home alone so Drew Barrymore’s
death scene in Scream hit home. Maybe that’s why
I’m so started whenever a phone rings in the dead quiet (or is
that irritation?). If there is another fear factor that you didn’t see on this list, let us know, or click here to leave a comment on my blog. Expect more entries about horror movies as Halloween draws nearer!
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