All of the successful horror movies rely on some small directing details that keep us moving even from a small bruise or light noise. In this video, we make a list of the most frequently used tricks from the horrors that are influencing our perceptions.
- Infrasound/Nonlinear sound: We as humans can hear best at registering sounds above the frequency of 20 hertz. Anything below that is called infrasound. There are many examples from horror movies where directors are using sounds right around this threshold and that operate at the higher edge only in order to make us feel uncomfortable.
- Subliminal images: similar to the sound perception described above but this affects the visual perception: in the movies, we are seeing shots lasting ⅛ of a second or less of a blink of an eye. Once you get used to this image and not being able to detect it with a higher frequency, you start questioning your own perceptions.
- Using negative space: A very popular one! When the audience is seeing anything in space that is not the subject of what the camera is focusing on. Horror movies deliberately use such an approach to make audiences squirm. As a result, we start expecting action coming from this empty space. The hidden secret here is that it leaves the imagination to fill in the emptiness.
- Leaving no empty space at all: together with the third one, there are many movies where we have shown wide focus on a deadly monster approaching followed by the close-up of the face of the protagonist in fear. As a result, we can feel the emotion of the character in question.
- Shallow camera focus: firstly we have a close up from behind followed by out of focus medium close-up. For example, the main character is coming into focus but the background remains blurry.
- The dark voyeur/the hidden onlooker perspective: the camera is located behind something like a bush or a piece of furniture. This technique creates the feeling that we are aware of something and the protagonist isn't, which creates our sensation of them being watched.
The first person killer/victim perspective: with it, we start feeling like we are the accomplices to the scene. We literally start feeling the emotions of the killer or of the victim with a camera coming from the eyes of the main suspect.
