Horror Movies- No Sound Equals No Fear

Typically I am ambivalent about watching horror movies. I don’t find them all that exciting or interesting. Oftentimes the acting is poor and many rely upon blood, guts and gore to make them fly. I can take them or leave them.

Truth be told the only time I really remember paying attention to them was during my single years. I found them to be a useful tool as they did a good job of encouraging handholding and the like. There, that is my big confession of the evening.

Here is one more. Silence of the Lambs did wonders for my dating life, I'll save the full story for a different night. And now on to the meat of the post.

If you are the kind of person who watches horror movies from between the fingers you use to cover your eyes you might want to consider turning off the sound. Ok, turning off the sound would make it awfully dull, but it would work. There is something else that can be done. Get rid of the soundtrack. Strip it from the movie and leave the dialogue.

Ok, I don't know how you would or could do this, but without the scary soundtrack the movie loses some of its edge. The monsters aren't quite so scary and the anticipation is dramatically reduced.

Think about it.

7 comments:

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Jack: I watched "Silence of the Lambs" with my wife at a midnight showing in Tel Aviv.

While it made my wife squash my hand with fear as she watched it -- the fun part was going home to our dark apartment. She wanted me to open the door and go in to make sure the coast was clear in our apartment...and then when I went it, she jumped on me for abandoning her in the dark hallway.

Loved the movie! :)

kasamba said...

What would Jaws have been like without the dum, dum, dum, dum?

To think of all the baths I could have taken without fear!

cruisin-mom said...

definitely Jack...SOTL...great movie! Kasamba is right, the music really made the shark scary. Wait Until Dark was a great scary movie. And the Birds still freaks me out.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yeah. Definitely, nothing like a horny... er... horror flick for getting closer to a chick.

Both subjects lose their attraction somewhat as time goes by. But it is a rather personal observation, please proceed...

Elie said...

SotL is one of my favorite movies, though I generally don't like bloodbath horror flicks. In fact one of SotL's best aspects is that the actual gore is kept to a minimum. Lecter is scarier for his manner of speaking and his unflappable confidence and control of every situation, than for any physical actions he takes.

fluentsoul said...

I think you might be on to something here. Several years ago, I used to watch scary movies with two of my friends who were Deaf, and the parts that had me hiding under couch cushions seemed only mildly amusing to them. Yet they thought Anaconda was the scariest movie in the world. ?!!?!?

It's gotta be the music.

Jack Steiner said...

Jameel,

That is kind of funny.

Kasamba,

You were afraid of the bath?

CM,

Yep.

Snoopy,

How true.

Elie,

I have long believed that what we come up with in our minds is almost always scarier than what we see on screen. It is the not knowing.

FS,

Makes sense to me.

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