Why Do I Get Scared by Music or Sounds in Movies?
Whether it’s the roar of a T. rex or the low, two-note tune of a shark on the hunt, smart filmmakers know that some sounds will always activate our built-in danger systems.
A creaking door, a howling wind—then suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream and discordant crash of piano keys reverberate through the building. It isn’t just you—everyone else in the theater has just jumped out of their seat as well. Some things are plain scary, whether the danger is real or not.
Being jumpy at spooky sounds is in our DNA. Outside our control, the ever-alert amygdala hears something it interprets as dangerous and puts the emotional system on edge. Our adrenaline-fueled fight-or-flight reflex makes our heart race, blood pressure climb, hairs stand on end, and pupils dilate. (We know that if a person’s amygdala is damaged or removed, they do not feel fear.)
When we are tense, a sudden noise makes us jump. We involuntarily blink (to protect our eyes) and our shoulder and neck muscles rapidly contract (to protect the back of the head). We share these shock and fear reactions with most of the animal kingdom.
Screams of panic or terror have a primal panic-inducing power. They are remarkably similar in all animals, tending to be loud and shrill, with a high pitch (or frequency) that wobbles up and down. We find some other sounds scary or shocking because they mimic a scream, such as the screeching of car brakes, the wailing of an emergency siren—or the jarring, staccato violin chords in a horror movie.
It’s not just loud noises that set us off. Edge-of-your-seat creaky floorboards are similarly frightening because they seem to unlock the intuition of our fretful forebears: if we weren’t vigilant to the quiet crack of a twig indicating an approaching predator, we would have become tiger food. Similarly, a howling wind puts us on edge because it masks these subtle noises, making us deaf to an approaching beast. (This is why many animals in the wild stop moving when a strong wind is blowing.)
Movie composers have perfected the art of playing on all our scared-animal predispositions. We tend to be afraid of loud, low frequency roars and booms because in the natural world, there’s a good chance it was made by something big and dangerous. Slow, low-pitched tones evoke tension and worry so a low, throbbing baseline sound played over a tense scene amplifies the sense of unease. Some movies even play ultra-low frequency “infrasound” notes (less than 20 hertz) that are imperceptible to us yet may still accelerate our fight-or-flight response.
Many of us enjoy horror movies because in the safety of the theater, that primal rush of adrenaline is felt as excitement rather than terror. We allow ourselves to enjoy the highly energizing effects of the fear response, while keeping a sense of control.
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freaky frequencies
In common with most animals, humans tend to be afraid of sudden and loud noises at either extreme of the audible frequency range, such as the roar of a wild animal or a human cry.