Sound in the American Horror Film

by Jeffrey Bullins

Overview

The crack of thunder, a blood-curdling scream, creaking doors, or maybe complete silence. Sounds such as these have helped frighten and startle horror movie audiences for close to a century. Listen to a Universal classic like Dracula or Frankenstein and you will hear a very different soundtrack from contemporary horror films. So how did we get from there to here? What scared audiences then compared to now?

This examination of the horror film's soundtrack builds on film sound and genre scholarship to demonstrate how horror, perhaps more than any other genre, utilizes sound to manipulate audience response. Beginning with the Universal pictures of the early 1930s and moving through the next nine decades, it explores connections and contrasts throughout the genre's technical and creative evolution. New enthusiasts or veteran fans of such varied films as The Mummy, Cat People, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Psycho, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity, and A Quiet Place will find plenty to explore, and perhaps a new sonic appreciation, within these pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476690681
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	07/22/2024
Pages:	243
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeffrey Bullins is a sound designer and educator living in Greensboro, North Carolina. He has worked in the sound department for several horror films and has written on various aspects of the genre.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
 1. The Quiet of the Grave
 2. Wartime Monsters and Creature Features
 3. Branching Sonic Styles in the 1960s
 4. The Savage 70s: A Return to Unpolished Realism
 5. Slashers, Sequels, and Rubber Reality
 6. Scream and Postmodern Horror
 7. The Stylistic Excess of Torture Porn
 8. Waning Realism in Found Footage
 9. Supernatural Sounds: The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity Franchises
10. Silence, Point of Audition, and Shifting Perspectives in A Quiet Place
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The book offers important insights about the way sound—from effects to score to dialogue—functions in specific horror films to create specific effects for viewers, and about the way trends in sound design in American horror change over time.”—Shelly Jarenski, associate professor of literature and author of Immersive Words: Mass Media, Visuality and American Literature, 1839–1893

From the Publisher