Julian Hanich discusses the pleasure that people feel from watching horror films in Cinematic emotion in horror films and thrillers, ‘while I watch a frightening movie I am not aware that I respond to my life world- I can only become aware of the pleasure I experience’. (Hanich 2010, p. 25). Although I don’t receive pleasure from watching horror personally, I can admire them and how they are made. I like horror as a genre to analyse because it’s so distinct. I especially noticed this after binge watching criminal minds lately; in the opening scene before the opening credits when there is the crime. In these scenes they last no more than 5 minutes but they are still able to scare me by applying elements familiar to horror films.

Sound plays with the emotions of an audience and is an important part of producing their fear. Berberian Sound Studio demonstrated the effect sound has, hearing the sound effects just on their own was creepy without even seeing what was on screen. Hearing the noise without seeing what it belonged to on the screen left a lot to the imagination and this meant that the sound alone was enough for the audience to experience discomfort.

After seeing the behind the scenes of sound in Berberian Sound Studio, it got me thinking about music as diegetic sound in horror films. This is a feature used in a lot of horror movies, the radio suddenly starts playing a creepy song on it’s own. It’s interesting the effect this has, non-diegetic music has such a different use, building suspense and controlling your mood. But when the characters can here the music too it is very creepy and forever ruins the song. I would like to try to ruin a pop song for everyone for my PB4.

References:

Chion, Michel (1994). Chapter 1: Projections of Sound on Image. In Audio-vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 3-25.

Hanich, Julian. (2010). From ‘Pleasures and Counterbalances’ on p.24 to just before ‘The Structure of this Study’ on p. 36. In Cinematic emotion in horror films and thrillers. New York, Routledge.