What is a “jumpscare”? Well, if you live in a home without teenagers to explain it to you, it’s the thing that happens when you’re watching a horror movie and some abrupt sound, image, or other bump ...

It’s one of the most well-worn tricks in the horror handbook: An innocent victim is minding their own business, nothing happening, and then…something happens to make the watcher’s heart skip a beat.

The brain has evolved to interpret these irregular sounds as potential danger, triggering that instinctive “fight or flight” response. It’s the reason the screeching violins in the movie “Psycho” or ...

Behind the sounds: Foley artists recreate everyday noises in studio settings, using imaginative props to make film worlds feel real and subtly cue dread. Psychology of audio: Unsettling sound textures ...

For horror enthusiasts, any movie that gets their hearts pounding like a racehorse and makes them jump from their seats takes the cake. Most of the time, horror movies rely on jump scares to inject ...

Alyssa Mertes Serio is a writer from the United States. She graduated from college with her Bachelor of Arts in English and Communications in 2014, and since then, has contributed to many digital ...