Research: The Importance of Sound In Horror Films

Sound in horror films plays a key role in creating the atmosphere of a horror, music and sound in horrors are one of the important things to make something scary, an example of this is Jaws, if Jaws had no music it would be like a number of people in the ocean and you can just see water. however, once the Jaws theme is introduced it gives out suspense and danger. Here is a video of what I mean ( Bad quality )

As the shark arrives there is no music and it really just looks like men fishing, but once the music is added it gets more scary. This video is a prime example of DIEGETIC AND NON - DIEGETIC SOUND, because it shows us the scene without the music and then with. The characters in the film are not able to hear the music which means the music was added in post production, however they can hear all the natural stuff a character could hear like the ocean for example.

Another example why music in horror films plays a key role in scaring the audience is the types of way you can create the non diegetic sound ( added in production ) for example a violin is commonly used because of the pitch and tone it can produce, the music in the conjuring is scratching violins and hymn like voices when the spirit appears, because that sounds is very uncomfortable and you can sense that evil would be near when watching the film because of the sound that was added into it from post production. What also plays a key role for music in the film is the famous music box, the music box is generally very scary once everything is silent, here's a video to it ( also bad quality )  

The music is very similar to insidious too as it was created by the same director. They both use violins to give out that tone and pitch to make the audience feel uncomfortable, however the conjuring without music would look very weird as it would just be screaming and people floating about. It would still be scary but not as scary with the music as that creates the atmosphere. Music is important in making a film scary even if the character can't hear it, you can meaning it puts you in an uncomfortable zone. It also means that if you want to close your eyes when watching the film you can, but if the music is that bad you'll have to find out how to shut your ears too. Generally when something is too scary they block their ears because then they can't hear the awful music and can only see the film which wouldn't have the full effect on that individual.