Sound Research

Sound research

Sound is one of the most important aspects to a horror film as sound helps to encourage and create a specific mood and emotions. Even though there are allot of diverse range in the music that has been used throughout different horror films, some of these common conventions include:

·         Isolated instruments are often used just before a key event occurs which helps link the idea of vulnerability, to the audience.

·         Long suspenseful notes are often used just before a key event occurs which helps convey the idea of vulnerability to the audience.

·         Extreme but intentional changes of pitch tones. For example low long brass notes which suddenly change to very fast high pitched noted to make the audience feel immediately tense.

Voices

·         Lots of voiced within horror films have been chosen to reflect fear; tensions and panic. An example of this is the voices used by big, well known production film, the jigsaw puppet in the SAW films.

·         His tone of voice is well suited for the part it needs to play, as it effectively creates fear and tension because it is very distinctive which therefore stands out most from any of the other characters. As there has been many Saw films the continuous use of the same voice develops more effect over the audience as both fear and the voice are associated with one another.

·     His voice also helps to create an immediate sense of fear, intimidation and power because it has a husky filter and strong deep tones. Not only this however a sense of mystery is created as you are unable to see the persons face. The idea of the unknown is very effective in horror films.

·         As the voice sounds unnatural due to the filters it establishes despair in the audience as it is something new and unknown to the people. The unknown is a common aspect that is often used within the horror genre which can also be created through the lack of vision.

Sound effects

There are lots of sound effects which can occur in a horror film soundtrack, which could include:

·         Commonly used (classic) – Lost of sounds that have horror type connotations which help make them recognisable and iconic to the audience such as – Crows, bats, owls, church bells, footsteps and the wind/ trees rustling.

·         Echoed voices – this helps heighten the audience’s mood, sense and emotion towards the film which can give quite a ghostly feel.