What Truly Makes a Movie Scary?

Horror movies have been a huge part of culture for near a century now.  They have shocked billions of people ever since the start of their existence.  Some of the films were good, some were terrible, and some of them have been able to scare the life out of people. What makes these movies scary though? Is it the themes, the violence, the music, or the villain? In this article I will tell you what I personally think makes a movie frightening.

The first thing that makes a film scary is the personality of a really good villain.  A villain that is frightening is one whom is subtle, demented, silent, and sadistic.  You can't have a villain that just kills people.  There has to be a deeper brutality in them, and maybe even a suggestion that they take pleasure from what they do.  If you look at characters like Michael Myers from "Halloween", or Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs," you can really see that they're just twisted people.  Even though Michael doesn't talk, you can really sense the insanity just by how he presents himself.  In Buffalo Bill, you are able to be frightened by the warped dialogue he speaks, and in his happiness of what he does.  In a character like Jason Voorhees, the idea that he goes after every teen in the area is pretty crazy, because you know it's a form of vengeance. The thing that will really get you with Jason is how threatening he is when he moves. 

The next thing that a scary movie needs is surprise.  A movie that just goes through killing people back and forth won't exactly scare you, because there won't be any suspense.  But if there are scenes where the audience is under the pressure of not knowing the fate of a character, then they will get much more anxious and scared.  One of the greatest examples of this is the film "Halloween."  The whole last part of the film is completely insane, because Jamie Lee Curtis is literally on the verge of being murdered the whole time, and she is in like a rush hour chase scene in her own house.  The best part of this whole entire thing is the scene where Jamie is hiding in the closet, and Michael opens it to try to find her.  This is such a tense and horrifying scene for many, because she is sitting there completely in shock, and Michael has every opportunity to find and kill her.  The fact that the scene is filmed dark, and that the closet is small makes it a very very mortifying scene.  A horror movie really only needs one scene like this, because that one increment of the whole film will mark your memory forever.

I think a good soundtrack really makes a big difference in the scary nature of a film.  The best thing to do is make a theme that will follow through the film as things happen.  Great examples; "Jaws", "Halloween", and the "ch ch ch" theme in "Friday the 13th".  These theme songs are great, because they really almost work as a way for building up tension in the film. The best thing they can do is tease you with them though, because while they usually are used when something bad is about to happen, if they're used to mess with you, it will throw off your readiness for the scary moments. 

I don't think the violence in a film is what really makes it scary. I think it can disgust the viewers, or make them shocked, but I don't find them to be what really scares them.  The really frightening things is when things are implied offscreen.  When this happens, your imagination really kicks in, and you think of all of the horrible things that might've happened.  If you hear loud noises and screaming while the screen is dark, then anything could've happened from a stabbing to torture. I feel this works well, and it will definitely freak people out more than just screen gore. 

Overall, I find that movies are scarier when messing with psychological aspects of the audience are messed with.  The gore is more for the fun or disgusting nature of the film. If you can really get a person worried, then you have a successful scary movie.   What do you all think makes a film scary?  Feel free to comment.