Tuesday, September 05, 2023
The Best Scream on Film Wasn’t in a Horror Movie
collider.com: Every time a horror movie watcher utters a phrase like "Don't go in there!" or "He's right behind you!" it's a certainty that something truly awful is about to happen, and somebody, usually the quintessential damsel in distress, is about to let out a blood-curdling scream. The quality of that scream can be the key to just how effective and jump-inducing that scary scene can be.
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3 comments:
I enjoyed this article’s narration and learnt a lot about films that I didn’t even think about before. Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ is definitely a cinematic masterpiece with the scream marking one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. Although I have not seen ‘Psycho’ myself, the shower scene where Marion is killed comes to mind whenever we talk about horror movies. The article discusses another film, ‘Blow Out’ by Brian de Palma, and how the movie-within-a-movie led to the best scream in movie history. I think the whole plot seems very interesting, and it’s refreshing to see a sound engineer as the protagonist of a movie. I think it’s a great way to show people who are not in the industry the importance of sound engineers (not just in solving murder mysteries!) and the amount of digital information that they must process when working. I agree that the scariest scream should make the audience feel like they are in danger too.
I found this article fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Prior to reading this article, I did not give horror movie screams much thought. I’ve always known that they were they own special breed. Although I have never seen the movie blowout it seems like a movie I would enjoy. I was aware of sound abilities to identify crimes and think it is a fascinating concept. Things like Shotspotter have revolutionized crime detection, allowing more than double the amount of shots fired to actually be reported. But back to topic, The article states that the best horror movie scream came from the movie blow out which ironically is not a horror movie. Overall the movie blowout is considered to be a flop for de Palma because it went into detail about sound and sound reconstruction which caused the audience to think. As well as the unsettling ending which leaves the audience with the idea that a proper horror movie scream can only come from someone experiencing true horror
It is always interesting to learn how prescriptive films have to be. How detailed every scene must be written. As a collaborative production, movie sets need to be very specific about what they want so as to communicate with so many people working on it. The surprise scare is no different. To make it as believable as possible they must be as didactic as possible. It is interesting to think about the science of a scream. How timing, pitch of voice, and expression all set the mood. How a horror scream is different from a regular scared scream is something I never thought about.
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