Jump Scares are the foundation of so many horror movies. This blast of adrenaline keeps horror fans coming back to the cineplex. Great horror movies, awful horror movies—they all use them. The Scariest Things team discusses our favorite use of the easiest and perhaps most essential trope in the genre.
I scream. You scream. We all scream for jump scares! Properly executed, this is the trope that will get audiences shrieking in terror. Use it too often, and it dulls the impact. Timing and setting is everything for the jump scare.
Our Formal Declaration of a Jump Scream:
Jump scares exploit the human’s natural fight or flight response to a threat, causing an automatic physical reaction like quickened heart beats and adrenaline rushes. A scene that shocks and frightens you so that you suddenly move.
The Scariest Things Team is not hardened to good jump scares. Heather is a screamer. Mike is a jumper. Liz and Eric like to watch Mike jump.
Filmmakers employ different methods to deploy their jump scares. Sometimes there is a buildup of tension, building anticipation. (The jack-in-the-box). Other times, they catch an audience when their guard is down, in a false sense of security. But, you have to be careful, if you utilize the jump scare too often, there may be diminishing returns for the scares.
The traditional method: Building to the jump
- Build up tension, usually isolating an individual potential victim.
- Ramp up the ominous music.
- Feel free to mix in a false jump scare. A cat, perhaps.
- Frame the scene with plenty of open space, and place the potential victim outside the center of the frame.
- Trip the actual scare, with a crash, a blast of dissonant strings, and rapid movement. Go explosive.
- Add blood and gore for flavoring.
Used in: Alien, The Thing, Paranormal Activity, The Grudge
The out-of-nowhere blind side technique: Catching the audience when they are relaxed
- Everything is normal. Perhaps a little dread plays in the background, but this is not a particularly intense lead-up.
- Maybe there is a conversation, or a character going about their daily routines.
- Perhaps there is a “pregnant” pause… and then
- Launch the attack without notice! SURPRISE!
Used in: Sinister, Exorcist III, Friday the 13th
This technique sometimes gets employed at the end of the movie once the audience thinks that the danger has passed.
The misdirection jump Scare:
- Look Left.
- Nothing there
- Look Right.
- Nothing there
- Look Left again
- BOO!
Used in: Scream, Halloween, Paranormal Activity 3, Poltergeist
Variants of this include the classic monster under the bed or monster in a closet trope.
You can hear our favorites and the stories behind our selections right here! Episode 197: Jump Scares!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Is Alien the most successful jump scare movie of all time?
This movie has FOUR all-time classic jump scares. Three jack-in-the-box moments and a cat jump scare for the ages!
