Tension Effect In Horror Movies

The movies “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock and “What Lies Beneath” by Robert Zemeckis are similar in the sense they are both amazingly put together in a horror movie that the viewers loved. It takes a lot of effort to make a good movie that the audience will like, but it would take more from a horror movie so the audience would stay and watch up till the end. For the people who do enjoy the horror movies, there are many reasons why they watch scary movies. The elements that make the horror effective are that it creates tension; this had been accomplished through the mystery and shock through the sound and music. It is relevant to the audience because of the point of view, the camera position and the fact that it made the audience a part of the …show more content…
The tension effect in “Psycho” is created mostly by the music and sounds that were added. The movie started off with this creepy background music which made the theme very clear in the beginning. There are many moments of asynchronous sounds when the mother is speaking. Since mother is not shown until the end only her voice is heard and it is shown as a high-pitched old woman. This helps the audience become suspicious and add to the mystery because why did they not show the mother, and if she was sick like Norman said, why didn’t she sound sick? Additionally there are many moments of extraneous music, which is put to emphasize the theme. The characters speak with a calm and serious tones, and there is little to no humor. This is an effective technique because the audience will be calm and into the movie so they so they would pay more attention and have better reactions. In “What Lies Beneath” the tension is created more through mystery and suspense. This is through supernatural forces that would cause things to fall randomly or popping up in the reflection of the water in the tub. There is …show more content…
This can be done through the positioning of the camera to make the audience a part of the movie. In “Psycho”, the movie was filmed in black and white, which indicates the time period in which the movie was filmed. With this in mind, the audience would be mentally prepared and would put themselves in the shoes of someone from that time. The point of view for the audience is as if they are in the movie but watching from the side. When the characters Marion and Norman are talking, it is a low angle and makes the audience look up to them. This perceives the characters and that scene in particular as large and meaningful. The times that the camera was leveled at a straight angle, it seemed as though the audience was standing right in the movie watching from a side. The close up shots are to show facial expressions for instance when Marion is driving she keeps looking into the rear view mirror which shows that she is paranoid. The medium shots show interactions between people like when the characters are talking the audience is watching them both from a side. The long shots were done to show a scene with something of focus in the middle. An example of this was when the police officer was standing outside his car and watching her. The long shot was to show that the traffic if moving but the officer is stopped and watching her, so this is emphasizing the officer. For most of the movie, the audience is