Suddenness has to be part of it, I would think, regardless of music sting or rapid camera movement. You turn normally and a thing is there when it shouldn’t be, that’s a jump scare. Somebody is talking on the phone while Jason slowly walks up behind them in the camera’s vision, not so much.
Is it a jump scare with a particular scene in Hereditary? Where there’s a long shot that seems to be setting up a scare, but the scare has been sitting in the scene the whole time?
If that counts I felt that was a good one, with fun “rolling” reactions from the audience as people picked up on it.
See, but there are two kinds of thing I see described as jump scares. One is the character walking along a corridor while the light turns creepy and music becomes ominous, then someone jumps out of the shadow but oh it’s just that annoying guy from earlier wearing a stupid mask to scare you.
The other kind is when the remaining characters are getting in the car to drive back to town away from the killer and it’s dark and they can’t see anything, then suddenly something smashes the car window oh shit it’s him, he’s right here.
Two different things.
I dunno, in the context of jump scares, they feel similar to me. The jump and the smash serve the same purpose, though we could argue buildup.
Tom you are akin to my wife. Not in that way though. She’s a HUGE horror fan and detests most tropes and even entire sub-genres of horror for various reasons. Then she will love one and I’m usually baffled because it sets up a, “but what did you like about THIS one,” conversation since I think many are similar.
I’ve always thought the bulk of jump scares are exactly this:
… which makes sense. But it doesn’t as well. A filmmaker doesn’t know when you’re overly-amped or so full of tension you’re about to have a stroke. So I think jump scares come as unnecessary tension release all too often, so I partially agree with your take.
But we certainly can’t throw all of them out just because of that. A good director knows the tropes but takes you on a journey to throw them at you in ways you least expect. Something like a slow reveal to what you might have thought, but then it’s suddenly there in front of you. You might ask yourself, what scares ME? Not the expected, usually. So in film, all the reflections in the mirror, the things in the closet or under the bed, or behind the shower curtain, or on the other side of the blinds, or right outside where the pet ran, or just around the corner … all of those are the tropes we expect things to happen at. When jump scares happen at those times they are generally pretty crappy. Even I don’t like them.
But some scare the bejesus out of me. An example below. Spielberg shows us what’s coming. He distracts us with other cuts, he dances around it with noise and movement, he even gives us mini-jumps with common tropes (under the bed,) but then he gets ya. And man, this scared the shit out of me when I was younger. This is how you do a jump scare.
For us cowards.
If a little pee or chocolate has come out, you can also use:
Ha, but I saw that when I was 11, I think and I fuckin’ KNEW that clown was under there. Still a jump? Either way, scared me silly. That’s just identifying things that we’re all scared of as kids and making them happen. The circling arm was the scariest part, for some reason.
In the early/mid 00’s there was a spate of internet jump scare videos which were pretty much just relaxing/chill scenes where all of a sudden something would JUMP OUT totally devoid of any setup or context. That was about the last time I really remember being ‘got’ by a jump scare. A lot of film/tv stuff is just too heavily foreshadowed and I ain’t exactly an easy scare either. Generally*.
Perhaps I just play too many videogames. I think they’re a more effective medium for that sort of thing (VR especially). I can still appreciate the craft of a good one, though - Hereditary’s was excellent because I like the way it toyed with the audience’s observational skills.
fox.mrs is a very easy scare, however, so these days I just live vicariously through her.
* Unless you’re a buncha black tentacles hidden in my ceiling. *shudders*
Jumpscares are the lootboxes of film.
You mentioned video games, the original Unreal had a great one at the beginning. I don’t think I went much beyond it, but back when a basic FPS seemed like virtual reality, those serially darkening lights did a great job.
I was watching a few of these clips and in the Poltergeist one I saw a terrible continuity error:
I noticed that Darth Vader mask thing and thought it was amusing. Note Darth in the center of the bed and the lamp by the bookshelf.
But now, when he’s messing with the clown, suddenly the lamp is in the center of the bed and Darth is over by the bookshelf!
This kind of stuff bugs me. Where was the on-set continuity person for this scene!!
BTW, the Carrie jump scene got me even though it was only 30 seconds long!
@tomchick my wife SO agrees with you. However she mentioned not one movie but an entire SERIES built on the fact you think you know the scare, but they are still going to surprise you: Final Destination.
My own most intense jump scare experience was watching Evil Dead 2 at a theater in college. I had no experience of Sam Raimi, which helped set me up, but the specific thing that got me was the intersplicing of humor in between the scares - the humor served as both a palate cleanser and also a “fear-armor-remover” leaving me vulnerable to the next jump. And the jumps were not suuuuuuuuuuuuuper-slow-build-up long lingering multi distraction scares but relatively swift and abrupt, which IMO heightened the impact. That would not have worked without the humor in between.
I think one of the reasons jump scares are so often ineffective (and have IMO become less effective in recent years) is a combination of two things: first, as viewers we are experienced with horror tropes and pacing and so when we see slow build up and distractions, we are ready for the jump scare - the director means to prime us but due to our jadedness that doesn’t work. Second is that directors have responded to the first issue by increasing the length of the buildup, multiplying the distractions and generally trying to overwhelm our jadedness by brute cinematic force. TLDR: jump scares suck in modern movies b/c viewers are armored against them and directors respond by over-engineering the scares.
The Raimi approach was better: do something completely different to change the mood, rinse the fear out and then when the psyche is un-clenched, WHAM. Instead of constantly “heightening the tension” to overcome audience resistance, or using misdirection/distraction, directors should IMO try out changing the mood, the pace, the emotional milieu, what have you.
That’s my two cents.
Super TLDR version: jump scares suck b/c they’ve become over-engineered. Try other methods directors.
The one that always gets me is the facehugger in the tank in Aliens. I know it’s coming and bang, I still jump.
It is also plot relevant as the Chekhov’s facehugger that goes off in the later scene where it is released.
You guys just reminded me of one of the dumbest, and therefore best, jump scares.
Most of them are bad. They’re a tool that are relied on too often, and frequently by people who are better than me at directing but that’s like the only level of directorial ability they have and it’s not saying much.
But they’re not all bad. I love Jonesy in Alien (which is a great setup and drain for an actual kill) and the Facehugger in the tank in Aliens (as @SamS notes it’s actually a jump scare that’s disguising an important setup!). I personally loved the From Beyond remake a lot and it has a bunch. But I feel like they enhance the film’s oppressive and otherworldly atmosphere.
They are not the only way to break tension or do a “big scare” of course (I would submit the end of They Look Like People as a great example of an alternate method of the former).
I kind of like the “reveal scare” of what happens to Amber Tamberlyn in The Ring. Is that a full on jump scare, or jump scare adjacent? I don’t know. However, and I’ve told this before, I had to walk out of that movie in the theater (and I was sooooooo excited about it). A ginormous murder of early teen girls went to see the film and they spent the entire opening sequence screaming their heads off. It was fucking awful. By the time corpseberlyn showed up the tension had long since been drained out of the theater. Impressive feat for like 8 minutes of screen time or whatever it was.
Trying to think of some modern era examples of bad ones but there have been so many bad ones across space and time that they all look the same for me. So, I guess the one in that one movie was extra bad.
Sorry I’m kinda late to the party, Tom! Busy day. There are so many great observations and analyses in here!
I agree with the thread title but only because I think the phrase ‘jump scare’ is pejorative. Is that just me?
The gist of my comment in that other thread was that I want to stand up for the value of sudden fright as an important tool in horror filmmaking because I think some babies might be getting thrown out with their bathwater.
I work with young film nerds who love to know about tropes (and love to let you know that they know about those tropes) and a lot of them seem to think that any time a movie startles you, it’s a jump-scare and jump-scares are automatically cheap, bad, unfairly manipulative, etc. I disagree.
I think it’s maybe similar to short notes and long, drawn-out notes in music composition. The micro and the macro are both invaluable. So a horror filmmaker can play with quick bursts of fright or extended sequences of slow-burning anxiety and dread, or any combination of the two. The real treat is a crescendo of sustained terror which is rare (and rarer still with the more horror films you’ve seen. But, man, do we continue to chase that high.)
It’s true that fear and sudden fright aren’t emotions so much as physiological responses. All genres are designed to elicit various physiological responses, but I think horror movies are second only to porn in that department.
It’s also true what Tom said about resentment after a cheap scare. Or the alternative which is genuine admiration of a well-crafted startle. Yet both of these exist outside the world of the story as we’re thinking about the filmmaking craft as we watch.
The point about horror movies and dating is a great one. It’s the ultimate genre for clinging to your partner. Us old fogeys have seen it all but maybe we’d have a different perspective about jump scares if we were still getting clung to for dear life by hot babes whenever they happened. ;)
P.S.
I teach screenwriting and story structure, but with a writer/director focus so I make sure to touch on all aspects of the craft… as any good screenplay should!