by Ana-Maria Comanescu

Created on: April 28, 2009

For me, a scary movie doesn't necessary mean an excessive display of monsters and blood, but more likely, a very well-crafted display of fear. The element that is most important in a horror film is not the cause of the fright, but the fright itself, as a natural human weakness.

Special effects are not the key to creating a scary film scene. Examples can be given from the "Psycho" (Sir Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) scene with the famous shower murder, to the "Nightmare on Elm Street" (Wes Craven, 1984) scene where Glen Lantz is sucked into a bed and turned into a blood fountain. Filmmakers, ever since the very beginning of cinematography, have believed that by bringing monsters and other sorts of creatures to life, they can generate truly frightened reactions. I believe that to be a mistake, because, well, surely everyone was scared when they watched "Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" (F.W. Murnau) back in 1922, but now they are left unimpressed. By the time a film like "Saw" will be 20 years old, no one will think it's a horror film anymore and will more likely be amused by the special effects.

On the subject of special effects, there have been quite a few filmmakers who, rather than trying to give the movie a "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" vibe, have tried to conceal what needed special effects in order to preserve the fright. A maestro in this subject was Sir Alfred Hitchcock. In "The Birds" (1963), the horror wasn't merely in the look of the birds and how scary they appeared to be, but in the quick flutter of their wings as they approached to attack. Stephen Spielberg has emulated this style in "Jaws", avoiding to show the curious eye of the audience what the shark really looked like for a long part of the film. I think it's much cleverer to postpone showing what the horror element is like, rather than fully displaying it, and it creates a longer-lasting effect on the audience.

In my opinion, what really makes a scary movie scary is the psychological thrill. Something that doesn't offer quite an explanation, or if it offers one, you would rather not believe it. Films portraying phenomena than can be tagged as insanity, but still manage to send shivers down our spines, are "The Shining" (Stanley Kubrick, 1980), "Secret Window" (David Koepp, 2004), "IT" (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1990), all those examples being adapted from Stephen King novels, which I find to be the perfect sort of horror. While following the story, you can always think, "He's going nuts, those things are only happening in his head" but you also think, "Oh, but what if?". That sort of inner questioning is really engaging.

Other fascinating examples of scary films that work on the psychological level and that I fully recommend, but cannot place into certain categories, can be the classical "Silence of the Lambs" (Jonathan Demme, 1991), where the infamous Hannibal Lecter's quiet speeches give you goosebumps, the inexplicably frightening "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (Richard Aldrich, 1962), telling the story of two sisters locked in a more or less intended torture game, and of course, the surreal and unsettling masterpiece "Eraserhead" (David Lynch, 1977), only for those with a really strong stomach.

Along the horror film history, I cannot deny the imprint of infamous creatures, such as the Gremlins, the Blair Witch, Chucky the doll, or Freddy Krueger ("One, two, Freddy's coming for you, three, four, better lock the door") and their importance to the genre. For me, however, it's always going to be "Hereeee's Johnny!" , accompanied by the slam of the axe in the thick wooden door.

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