"Jump Scares" - OK, I'm old...

joeranger

Sr Member
So my 19yo trashes a movie with the comment; "It's just a bunch of Jump Scares strung together..."

I had not known that there was an actual term for this. Of course, I have seen a million of them. They work! They scare you.

I think they are like negative political ads, they work but leave you with a feeling of being manipulated.

Is it good film making or cheating... discuss:)
 
I do think a lot of horror films use "jump scares" as their sole method of scaring an audience in recent years. Of course when done right they're highly effective, but i think audiences now have become so accustomed to them that we can predict when they're going to happen. The best directors can subvert and manipulate that expectation to where tension is built and mantined and we cant predict the jump scare, if there even is one.
 
So my 19yo trashes a movie with the comment; "It's just a bunch of Jump Scares strung together..."

I had not known that there was an actual term for this. Of course, I have seen a million of them. They work! They scare you.

I think they are like negative political ads, they work but leave you with a feeling of being manipulated.

Is it good film making or cheating... discuss:)

If it's earned, then jump scares are worthy. But a lot of them do tend to be cheap. For example, I was watching a film yesterday and the lady was turning a pop goes the weasel toy. She was turning it for what seemed like an eternity, when, suddenly, the loudest screeching noise as it pops open! WTH? Why did I need a jump scare for a mundane item? Or a shadowy figure walks past a entryway super fast and there's loud screeching...why? The act of the figure was enough, why do I need a loud noise? Build up to the scare. Some scares only require a image, i.e., Exorcist girl staring at you...
 
I am a writing of the horror films. I personally don’t LOVE them— but well done, and expertly placed they are great— especially early on in a film when you don’t want to give away your big bad monster.

But it is something that lesser projects fully abuse— and unfortunately, a LOT of executives think horror films HAVE to have jump scares to be successful.
 
Most of the time, jump scares don't even make me jump. But one that always use to get me as a kid was Return of the Jedi. Wicket hears something and Leia is like, what is is, then laser blast.
 
Here's the thing.

Jump scares, in my opinion, are simulated terror. They basically take advantage of the "fight or flight" instinct by introducing an abrupt, startling stimulus to induce that state in the audience.

Real terror is the kind that stays with you after the movie. You know why people so loved The Ring when it first came out? Because it was ****ing creepy as hell. It created real fear. Like, the kind that makes you go home and unplug your computer monitor and TV for the night....juuuuuust to be sure. That's fear. That's what good horror movies create.

The Exorcist has no jump scares, and yet it's regarded as one of the best horror films of all time. Why? Because what's scary isn't the BOOOGITY-BOO jump scares, but rather the idea that this kind of evil exists and can corrupt and possess an innocent child.

The Thing (1980) is a landmark horror film not because of the jump scares that it has (although those are exceptionally well executed), but because of AMAZING creature design work, and because the idea is freaking terrifying: someone who looks just like you, someone who seems perfectly normal, could be one of these otherworldly monsters. And that monster could escape and infect the entire planet and there would be almost nothing we could do to stop it.

Alien and Aliens feature jump scares, sure, but what's the scene everyone remembers? Right. The chestburster sequence. That's not a jump scare. It's just pure, otherworldly horror at this grotesque "birth" that has taken the life of the host. And the rest of the films are terrifying because you have no idea how to stop these monsters (other than taking off and nuking the site from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure). And, again, AMAZING creature design. The aliens are always juuuust barely visible, they blend into the background, and they come crawling -- skittering, really -- out of the walls for you...and you know what's waiting for you when they catch you.

The original Nightmare on Elm Street is utterly terrifying not because of the gruesome kills (although those are pretty freaky), but because the idea itself is terrifying: you can die in your sleep, and there's almost nothing you can do to stop it.

Effective, high quality horror isn't about jump scares, it's about scary ideas that stay with you long after the movie ends. Nobody remembers the body that falls from the rafters or the cat that jumps out from behind a trash can before Jason menaces the virginal heroine. People remember the fact that he's this unstoppable killer who just...keeps...coming.

So, yeah "It's just jump scares" is absolutely a fair criticism of a horror film. The best horror, in my opinion, is the stuff that's based on horrific ideas.
 
Here's the thing.

Jump scares, in my opinion, are simulated terror. They basically take advantage of the "fight or flight" instinct by introducing an abrupt, startling stimulus to induce that state in the audience.

Real terror is the kind that stays with you after the movie. You know why people so loved The Ring when it first came out? Because it was ****ing creepy as hell. It created real fear. Like, the kind that makes you go home and unplug your computer monitor and TV for the night....juuuuuust to be sure. That's fear. That's what good horror movies create.

The Exorcist has no jump scares, and yet it's regarded as one of the best horror films of all time. Why? Because what's scary isn't the BOOOGITY-BOO jump scares, but rather the idea that this kind of evil exists and can corrupt and possess an innocent child.

The Thing (1980) is a landmark horror film not because of the jump scares that it has (although those are exceptionally well executed), but because of AMAZING creature design work, and because the idea is freaking terrifying: someone who looks just like you, someone who seems perfectly normal, could be one of these otherworldly monsters. And that monster could escape and infect the entire planet and there would be almost nothing we could do to stop it.

Alien and Aliens feature jump scares, sure, but what's the scene everyone remembers? Right. The chestburster sequence. That's not a jump scare. It's just pure, otherworldly horror at this grotesque "birth" that has taken the life of the host. And the rest of the films are terrifying because you have no idea how to stop these monsters (other than taking off and nuking the site from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure). And, again, AMAZING creature design. The aliens are always juuuust barely visible, they blend into the background, and they come crawling -- skittering, really -- out of the walls for you...and you know what's waiting for you when they catch you.

The original Nightmare on Elm Street is utterly terrifying not because of the gruesome kills (although those are pretty freaky), but because the idea itself is terrifying: you can die in your sleep, and there's almost nothing you can do to stop it.

Effective, high quality horror isn't about jump scares, it's about scary ideas that stay with you long after the movie ends. Nobody remembers the body that falls from the rafters or the cat that jumps out from behind a trash can before Jason menaces the virginal heroine. People remember the fact that he's this unstoppable killer who just...keeps...coming.

So, yeah "It's just jump scares" is absolutely a fair criticism of a horror film. The best horror, in my opinion, is the stuff that's based on horrific ideas.
^^This post = c54650b7278f88a3eeaa7aa7d5fce4f7.jpg

I heard a good example: A horror film using jump scares is like a comedian tickling the audience. Made you laugh, didn't I? Well, not exactly how comedy works. I'm particularly frustrated by the "false alarm" jump scares. When a superscreechy sudden sound effect comes because a friend comes into the frame. Those are really the lowest hanging fruits. Some of the successful jump scares are not just a quick "catch-and-release" type ones but the ones that are followed immediately by genuinely horrifying parts.
The blood jumping out of the petri-dish scare in The Thing is a jump scare but immediately followed up by Palmer turning into the thing and becoming a threat.
Ben Gardner's half-eaten head popping up in Jaws is a jump-scare but instantly creates terror because the shark can be anywhere at that point.

The scene where Sheriff Brackett scares Loomis in Halloween after he chased the kids away from the Myers house could have been made into a usual "false alarm" jump scare just by adding a sound effect. Carpenter knew better however than playing that cheap move. When Myers sits up in the background in the end however gives me the chills every time.
 
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Exactly! Jump scares are terrific if they fit the story overall. But the kind of transparent, manipulative jump scares of "OHNOITSA----cat?" are dumb and pointless. Even the usual "Our heroine finds all the bodies of her friends at once and then bumps into the killer" scares are kinda cheap. Originally, sure, it was a creepy idea (the killer removes the bodies and stages them for the heroine to find), but now it's just become a cliche. But the best jump scares never get old because they play into the story overall and are organic to it. They aren't simple audience manipulation for the sake of audience manipulation.
 
Jump scares don't affect me at all, mostly because it's so painfully obvious when they're using them. Horror has become terrible in recent years, it's either all jump scares or all gore thrown at the screen. No thanks.
 
One of my all time favorites was Jaws when the shark first comes out of the water and scares the hell out of Brody and he tells Quint he's going to need a bigger boat. If you hadn't seen the movie yet and were watching it in a full theater it really got you and Jaws was not considered a horror movie.
 
Real terror is the kind that stays with you after the movie.

This. 100%. For me it was that first “Blair Witch Project” film. It was early enough in the age of the internet that I didn’t have really good access, so it was hard to tell if it was actually some found footage or entirely scripted. Then, walking to my car after the movie and realizing I’d parked right next to the only wooded area near the theater gave me the heebie jeebies.

To top that off, we get home to our apartment...which was built inside an old chair factory that had a fire with a whole shift of workers getting killed, so there were plenty of ghost stories, only to have the ONLY THING I can think about be the woods that was back behind the building???? Yeeeeeah...my roomie and I ended up spending most of that night in a Denny’s getting free refills on soda.
 
This. 100%. For me it was that first “Blair Witch Project” film. It was early enough in the age of the internet that I didn’t have really good access, so it was hard to tell if it was actually some found footage or entirely scripted. Then, walking to my car after the movie and realizing I’d parked right next to the only wooded area near the theater gave me the heebie jeebies.

To top that off, we get home to our apartment...which was built inside an old chair factory that had a fire with a whole shift of workers getting killed, so there were plenty of ghost stories, only to have the ONLY THING I can think about be the woods that was back behind the building???? Yeeeeeah...my roomie and I ended up spending most of that night in a Denny’s getting free refills on soda.


Yeah, I'm with you on the first Blair Witch. Like you said, the whole concept and how they sold it was new enough that nobody was exactly sure what to make of it going in. And it's the kind of thing that becomes contagious in a darkened room full of strangers. When I saw it you could sense everybody was on edge and ready to lose their collective sh@t. It was very effective in that way.
 
Blair Witch again for me. Not so much the film, but after I'd seen it and got home, that faux documentary they did was on TV. That was so matter of fact and played straight it compounded what I'd just seen and put me right on edge.

I found the first Paranormal Activity movie to be like that too. Lots of locked off camera footage of things slowly happening where you barely even notice it starting. The sequels just became jump scare nonsense with little to no suspense and ultimately more boring than anything else. But the first was unsettling.
 
Blair Witch again for me. Not so much the film, but after I'd seen it and got home, that faux documentary they did was on TV. That was so matter of fact and played straight it compounded what I'd just seen and put me right on edge.

I found the first Paranormal Activity movie to be like that too. Lots of locked off camera footage of things slowly happening where you barely even notice it starting. The sequels just became jump scare nonsense with little to no suspense and ultimately more boring than anything else. But the first was unsettling.


I still can’t think of the scene in that first Paranormal Activity where Katie gets out of bed and just stares at Micah for like four hours without getting a little unsettled. Soooooo creepy.
 
I still can’t think of the scene in that first Paranormal Activity where Katie gets out of bed and just stares at Micah for like four hours without getting a little unsettled. Soooooo creepy.

I think that's what good horror does, it unsettles you, puts you on edge. SOLO4114 summed it up perfectly.

Hitchcock was the master of that, when you look at Psycho and all the tricks he used to unnerve the audience, flushing toilet etc, you can see how well it works.
 
Usually they are heavily telegraphed, after jillions of hours watching movies you know the tells.
And of course there is a difference between being startled and scared.
 
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