Vol 1, Number 3

In any classic (or not-so-classic) horror film, an essential ingredient to completing the spooky element of the movie is to have background music that chills as much as the visual elements themselves, possibly more. It is easy to say what sights cause us to wet our shorts in fear, but what is it about this music that fills us with the tension and dread that the movie maker well knows completes the frightening package?

To understand this, let us examine some of the techniques used to make music "scary." I am not referring to making music so appallingly bad that people are in constant fear that they will be forced to listen to such tripe while trapped for forty plus hours in an elevator. Songs that are cheerful and bright are played in a major key, so music in a minor key reverses the effect, but that is not usually sufficient. Musical scariness is often accomplished through the combination of notes that are not usually combined, such as notes that are very close or right next to each other on the musical scale. Think of the theme to the Twilight Zone ^tm. Those first notes are close to each other on a piano keyboard, and the effect is meant to be that the listener is creeped out by it, as if something strange is about to happen (which invariably does end up happening, but usually has the patience to wait for Rod Serling to finish). The chords and trills that follow those opening notes are not very pretty either, and this is another method used to send goose bumps creeping over the backs of every horror/sci-fi enthusiast. When an alien or monster is portrayed on screen (or is about to be), the chords that we hear are discordant, musically unpalatable, and work pretty well to convince us of the horror meant to go into the shot. Why does this musical technique work so well on us?

The human ear and mind enjoy harmony. Music soothes us when it is played with regular chords and familiar progressions. A sour note makes us wince, and is almost physically painful to the listener. When music sounds more discordant than musical, it seems that no human being would have or should have written such an unspeakably unappealing musical piece. The human brains seeks harmony, finds none, and an association is made to something other than a normal human being (something that perhaps enjoys listening to this cacophony, and probably ripping living things limb from limb). Only someone as disturbed as Freddy or Jason or some three-eyed, slime-trailing, horridly beclawed alien would have composed such a jangling, unpleasant soundtrack. So it is not that the music itself scares us so much as sets the mood for something bad to happen, and gives the audience the feeling that something is not quite right here. People did not expect to hear this type of music in their everyday life, and accordingly, do not know what to expect in the upcoming moments of the film.

In a similar fashion, scratching your nails down a blackboard produces a high-pitched noise that makes most people writhe in agony, pleading for the tortuous sound to end. Presumably, there is something about the pitch of this sound which causes the ear discomfort. The flaw in that argument is that if that were true, you wouldn't have the small group of people who have no problem at all with this sound (including Guess Who?). All dogs are bothered by the sound of a dog whistle, so that should be the case with this sound and humans! Rather, it is the same as above- people are not accustomed to hearing this unpretty sound, and so upon its arrival, are convinced that it must be something terrible. The simple non-attractiveness of the sound penetrates deep within a person and tells them that this is something awful. I myself have cured someone of their aversion to this sound, simply by getting them to listen to it slightly longer than they would've had I not insisted. Once we realize that it's just a weird noise, not something broadcast from another planet, it becomes a commonplace, if slightly irritating noise, just like all the other ones we hear all day.