Horror and the Art of Contrast

WHAAA!!  Did you just jump out of your seat?  Why?  Was it really that scary?  No?  Then what was it that made you scream like a little girl?  Horror Filmmakers have been fine tuning the art of scaring people for years, and of all of the variations that have been invented, they can all be boiled down to one very powerful device.  Contrast.

Contrast really is an art in itself, but when used in the world of film, it can help carry an entire feature.  What do I mean by contrast, anyways?  Like, black and white?  Precisely!  Without one, the other wouldn’t have nearly the impact it could have, or even exist at all.  What the hell am I talking about!?  Let’s clear this up a little bit with the “cheap scare.”

Ahh, the cheap scare.  A fifth grader could accomplish the cheap scare if given a camera and a cat.  You know the scene.  Someone is quietly sneaking through a creaky cabin or dark spooky mansion.  It seems like they will never find whatever it is their looking for when, “MEOW!” a cat jumps out at the person.  They jump and scream, and you jump and scream.  Whew, that was a close one.  What happened here?  Why did a cat jumping scare your pants off?  If you re-examine the scene, you will notice the high contrast the filmmakers carefully put in place.  The scene is very quiet.  The character is moving slow.  The music is slow and quiet, or not even there.  There is no dialogue.  Then, POW!  You are hit in the face with LOUD music, CRAZY fast jumping cats and SCREAMING stupid characters.  Very simple, yet still very effective.  Which is why I call it the cheap scare, because it’s easy enough to accomplish, and most audiences are hip to this scare and will see it coming a mile away.  Not to say that it still doesn’t work.  That’s the beauty of film.  The directors and editors can choose when and how to attack you with this type of scare.  Over used, and it becomes tired and doesn’t work anymore.  Used sporadically, and you will win the hearts of teenagers around the globe.  Here are some of my favorite “jump scare” style scares.

Alien

Here it is.  The cheap scare, done perfectly.  You got Tom Skerritt strolling down some dark and spooky tunnel.  All he has is the light from his flickering flame thrower.  He’s moving pretty slow, when all of the sudden, ALIEN!  He whips his light around just as the orchestra kicks into high gear and the alien jumps out at him.  Cheap, simple, scary as hell.

Jaws

Here we got Richard Dreyfus checking out a sunken boat at night.  He seems almost light hearted going into shark infested waters at night by himself.  He has his flashlight.  He dives down, everything quiet underneath the water.  Wait for it.  Here comes John Williams’ score.  Ahhh!  A severed head pops out of a hole in the boat, scaring the crap out of Ricky Dreyfus and you.  There’s even a disembodied scream thrown into the soundtrack for added jump factor.  Thanks for the soiled drawers, Spielberg.

If you notice, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill indie slashers using this formula.  These are some of the highest grossing horror films ever made.  This is Spielberg and Scott.  These guys know what they are doing.

Moving past the cheap scare, you will start to notice this pattern covering a whole bunch of horror territory.  Let’s examine one of my all time favorites, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  This is one of the creepiest films ever made, and guess what kiddies; contrast has a lot to do with it.  Check out the exterior of the house as the dumb teenagers stumble upon it.  It’s bright, cheery, sunny, almost inviting.  Yes, there are some weird things outside the house, but nothing too off-putting.

Once inside, though, it’s completely reversed.  We have dark dingy hallways, furniture made out of bones and skin, chickens in cages hanging from the ceiling, and a bizarre steel doorway which reveals one of the scariest moments of the film.  The complete opposite of sunny and inviting.

Imagine if instead of being all bright and sunny outside the house, it was dark and stormy with skeletons and things around.  The contrast wouldn’t exist, and we would have totally seen the craziness inside the house coming from a mile away.  Tobe Hooper tricked us, and we love him for it.

Some of my favorite moments in all of horror are from John Carpenters masterpiece, The Thing.  Again, this guy knows pacing and he knows how to set up the scare for us using contrast.  Like, this scene for example.  There is a long dialogue scene in a snowmobile.  No camera moves.  No real music to speak of.  Simple talking back and forth between two characters.

Then, moments later; YELLING, SCREMING, ALARMS SOUNDING, RUNNING, CRAZY ALIEN SOUNDS.  Holy effective.

Another scene using the same formula.  Lots of talking.  Slower pace.  Deliberately slow talking between the characters.

Then, JUMP!  A characters blood jumps up at Mac and all hell breaks loose quickly, and you cower under your covers.  You can thank the art of contrast for that.  Without the long quiet dialogue, we would have lost the impact of the alien attack, thus losing the scare.

The Exorcist

William Friedkin goes bat crazy squeezing as much contrast into this film as humanly possible.  The theme of the flick is even a contrast; “Good vs. Evil.”

You get your jump scares with ‘really quiet’ immediately before ‘really loud.’  Here, there is a long dialogue scene between the mother and the detective.  Seriously, it’s like ten minutes of them talking quietly.  He leaves.  She shuts the door, and then pauses for a moment.

Seconds later, all of this loud scary stuff happens.

The movie is jam packed with stuff like this.  Dark vs. bright.  Quiet vs. loud.

Ascending vs. descending.

Hurricane Billy goes Hurricane nuts with the contrasts in The Exorcist, which gives it its juice and keeps it alive.  Again, like my previous post about wide shots in horror films, these are very simple ingredients that can be very effective when used correctly.  What other ingredients can I write about putting into my horror stew?  Music, probably.