If you've ever seen a horror film, you've likely experienced a jump scare. A mix of cinematic build-up, sonic tension, play on expectations and intent to scare, the jump scare is a classic building block in horror movies with one goal: catching the audience off guard and making them jolt. But what makes a good jump scare? Why do they feel so different today, than what it was in the past? From 1942's jump scare pioneer 'Cat People' to more recent films like 'It' and 'Smile,' here's everything you need to know about the craft behind the horror technique and its need for constant evolution.
Director: Joe Pickard
Editor: Matthew Colby
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Amy Haskour
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Researcher: Paul Gulyas
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Director: Joe Pickard
Editor: Matthew Colby
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Amy Haskour
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Researcher: Paul Gulyas
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This is the movie Cat People, and that was the world's first jump scare.
00:10They've come a long way, but jump scares continue to be a pivotal tool for filmmakers
00:15looking to shock their audience.
00:17We'll look at some of the most influential jump scares throughout all of cinema to see
00:21how they evolved over time.
00:24But for now, let's get back to the olden days.
00:27Before Cat People, there had been some similar moments in films, like the face reveal in
00:321925's silent film, The Phantom of the Opera.
00:36Or this screeching cockatoo in 1941's Citizen Kane, which according to Orson Welles actually
00:41wasn't intended to scare, but instead to wake up an audience whose attention may have
00:45been drifting.
00:47But Cat People is the first to hit all the criteria of what we know as the modern jump
00:52scare.
00:53One, a build intention, like this long quiet tracking shot.
00:57Two, an audio cue, which could be music or some diegetic sound like these screeching
01:05bus brakes.
01:06Three, a play on audience expectations.
01:08We expect a threat from behind her, frame left.
01:12And we expect it to be a villain or a monster, but instead we get a bus from frame right.
01:20And finally, four, the director's intent to scare the audience.
01:25This tried and true formula established in Cat People led to jump scares becoming more
01:30ubiquitous in horror films throughout the 40s and 50s.
01:34Cue montage of early movie jump scares.
01:38Each follows the same pattern.
01:40Monster appears, cue music, scare audience.
01:44See, it's getting old already.
01:47Audiences eventually became savvy to the point that jump scares were parodied in comedies,
01:51like this one in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
01:59Time for the directors to get creative.
02:01In 1958's Hideous Sun Demon, the director cuts to the character's point of view shot
02:07for the scare, making it feel as though the monster is coming straight for the audience.
02:13This innovative jump scare from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is the first time a film's musical
02:17score is inextricably linked with the shock and horror of the moment.
02:25The orchestral strings sting is jarring, overwhelming, totally out of context with the music that
02:30precedes it.
02:31And of course, it went on to become iconic and unforgettable.
02:36In 1965, Repulsion introduced a new technique to the form, the mirror reveal.
02:42Remember this moment because this technique is going to come up a lot in future films.
02:52Here in 1967's Wait Until Dark, there are two innovative things happening.
02:57The first thing to notice is the kinetic movement of the villain as he literally leaps across
03:01the screen from the darkness.
03:03This is going to pave the way for more visually arresting jump scares in the future.
03:07The second and arguably bigger innovation is the use of dramatic irony.
03:12Dramatic irony is a formal element of storytelling where the audience knows and sees more than
03:16the protagonist does.
03:18In this case, the main character is blind, so she experiences this jump scare in a non-visual
03:22way, entirely different from how the movie-going audience is experiencing it.
03:27Time cut eight years forward, Steven Spielberg masterfully plays with audience expectations
03:32and jaws.
03:33You are anticipating the titular shark to jump out and scare you.
03:37Instead, we get this creepy dead body.
03:41Spielberg was fully aware that by holding off on showing the monster, aka the shark,
03:45for as long as possible, the tension and expectation just continues to grow.
03:50It's all psychological.
03:52You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the 4th of July.
03:58Jump scares have to continually evolve because if they stagnate and stay the same, audiences
04:03will stop being scared.
04:06Thus, the jump scare formula was once again stale and due for another innovation.
04:12Imagine it's 1976 and you've just finished the movie Carrie.
04:16Credits are about to roll, and you're collecting your belongings and preparing to throw away
04:20your popcorn when BAM!
04:25With this, Brian De Palma created the first Final Moments jump scare.
04:31We can see this trend continued in Friday the 13th, where the filmmakers trick the audience
04:35into thinking they are watching the actual closing shots of the film, only to be harshly
04:43interrupted by a jump scare.
04:45Another way the jump scare has been improved upon is by using other pre-existing film techniques.
04:50Here, in the 1977 movie Shock, we see what's called a Texas switch, typically used to switch
05:00a stunt person with an actor seamlessly in a single shot.
05:04But when a completely new person pops into frame, it definitely works as a jump scare.
05:10This jump scare in Halloween actually ends up being a fake out.
05:15Fake outs are a jump scare staple, creating a Chekhov's gun effect.
05:19They provide a momentary release in tension, but leave the eventual jump scare still on
05:24the table, effectively creating more tension in the long run.
05:28About 15 years after the first mirror jump scare, we get this tweak to the format.
05:32By now, audiences expected something scary to be revealed in the reflection.
05:37They did not, however, expect this.
05:43The classic monster jump scare was also due for a modern facelift.
05:47In 1979, Alien brought it back in full force with this unique, frenzied sequence.
05:53As opposed to a slow build towards a loud, sudden scare, the repeated beeping of the
05:58monitor showing something coming towards our protagonist, coupled with the desperate pleading
06:03of his friends for him to get away, work our nerves up.
06:07There's nothing to tip us off to exactly when the alien will appear, and when it does,
06:12we only get the faintest of terrifying glimpses, and then static.
06:17Also, bonus fake out scare.
06:23Time for the introduction of yet another trope.
06:25In American Werewolf in London, we see one of the first instances of a character waking
06:30up from a nightmare, only to discover he's still in the nightmare.
06:38This is commonplace now, but was extraordinarily effective at the time.
06:44This then paved the way for many of the jump scares in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
06:50Cue the Freddy montage.
06:53It's all over.
07:01Alice, Alice, wake up.
07:11Jesus.
07:18Some of the most effective jump scares happen while the audience's guard is down.
07:23Friday the 13th Part 2 uses a brilliant distraction to throw us off.
07:28Adorable puppy with a cute bow.
07:32Jason Voorhees crashing through a window.
07:35Another way to defy expectations?
07:38Have the human body do something a body doesn't normally do.
07:42In John Carpenter's astral horror The Thing, we see a man whose chest is hit with defibrillators
07:48do this.
07:53By going against logic, you can create really effective jump scares.
07:56Like this one from 1985's Day of the Dead, where a bunch of hands break through concrete
08:02walls.
08:03And jump scares are not only reserved for adults.
08:06Pee Wee's Big Adventure gave us another reality-defying jump scare, and one of the
08:10only, if not the only, claymation jump scare with large Marge.
08:17Great staging and lighting can also heighten the fright levels of a jump scare.
08:20In 1986's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, audiences might have been expecting the bad guy to be
08:26standing there.
08:29But to have him full-on charging towards the camera the moment the lights come up provided
08:34an extra level of surprise.
08:40Here we have another disturbing dream leading to a character being startled awake only to
08:44find the real jump scare in the bed next to them.
08:48And you guessed it, that was a dream too.
08:52Or was it?
08:55Halloween 4 combines both classic misdirection and defying logic to give us this jump scare.
09:04Tension builds as we anticipate Mike Myers leaping out from the closet, only for him
09:09to grab her leg from under the bed.
09:13This scare is only in service of the real jump scare immediately after, when she opens
09:18the door to find Michael Myers impossibly waiting for her right there.
09:26Cue the 90's.
09:31Considered one of the best of all time, this jump scare in The Exorcist 3 happens during
09:36a long, wide static shot in a hospital hallway.
09:40The shot almost lulls the audience to sleep as people go about their routines.
09:45A warden walks in the back.
09:49A nurse goes in and out of a room, checking to make sure the lights are off.
09:54Everyday, ordinary activities.
09:58No music plays, nothing moves in the foreground.
10:02This shot holds for more than 35 seconds, an incredibly long time for a static shot.
10:10And then...
10:15By going against convention, filmmakers find new ways to expand how to make a jump scare
10:20really work.
10:22That's exactly what is done in 1992's Candyman.
10:25Here, we would expect a scare reveal in the mirror's reflection.
10:29Instead, we get the scare coming through the medicine cabinet.
10:34Jurassic Park gave us no time to prepare for this jump scare.
10:40The push in on a smiling character in a triumphant moment is enough to tell the audience to let
10:44their guard down however briefly.
10:46But that's when the rafters always get you.
10:52David Fincher, in a way, turned the jump scare on its head in 1995's Seven, pun intended.
10:59While a common jump scare involves the reveal that someone is dead, or undead, Fincher built
11:04a jump scare out of the terrifying realization that this corpse-looking man was actually
11:09still alive.
11:15In the mid-90s, a movie franchise came along to turn all horror tropes on their head while
11:19still honoring the genre.
11:21That movie was Scream.
11:25As a meta love letter to horror movies, of course Scream is going to feature a lot of
11:29jump scares.
11:30In fact, Ghostface may be the horror villain with the most jump scares in any single franchise.
11:35Cue that Scream montage.
11:55With Scream being a meta commentary on horror movies and their tropes, it of course utilizes
12:03meta jump scares to fake out, terrorize, and thrill its audience.
12:14Traditionally, the target of a jump scare is the protagonist, or good guy.
12:18Robert Zemeckis turned this on his head by jump scaring the bad guy.
12:22Here, Harrison Ford's character, the antagonist, looks like he's finally got our protagonist
12:27right where he wants her, only for the ghost of a former victim of his to appear and scare
12:32him.
12:35As special effects evolved, it meant that CGI was on a crash course with the jump scare.
12:39Here, in The Fellowship of the Ring, the kindly old Bilbo Baggins' face suddenly morphs into
12:45a sharp-toothed, crazy-eyed monster right before our eyes.
12:53In 2002's Signs, M. Night Shyamalan had this very fresh take on the jump scare.
12:58Maybe it works because both the protagonist and the audience are watching the same screen
13:02together, in anticipation, connecting us deeper to the protagonist's terror.
13:07Maybe it's because a newscaster literally tells us it's coming, that makes the shock
13:11of it pay off so well.
13:15Or maybe it's that it's rewound, replayed, and freeze-framed immediately after the initial
13:21scare that makes it that much more haunting.
13:24Ju-on, the grudge, took a place we all think of as the safest, under the covers of our
13:30bed, and made it so nowhere is safe from a jump scare.
13:35Also, great mirror scare.
13:41And then The Ring shocked audiences with an unexpected edit.
13:46This jump scare doesn't come from anywhere within the context of the scene.
13:51Instead, it appears to be a sudden, vivid memory of one of the characters, implemented
13:56with a jolting, out-of-the-blue cutaway to this terrifying face.
14:05Not every jump scare works.
14:07This one falls flat, partially because the audience was familiar with these tropes.
14:11Also, the actors don't have a very big reaction.
14:14Once the creeper's revealed, he just kind of hangs there.
14:18There's no escalation in terror, and the scene stops surprising us.
14:23The Blair Witch Project ushered in a new genre of horror, the found-footage film, and with
14:28it, a new style of jump scares.
14:31The Descent may have perfected it in 2005 with cutaways to POV night-vision camera shots
14:37while characters are lost deep in a system of caves.
14:44The handheld shots put the audience squarely in the center of the character's panic, and
14:49when it pans over to reveal a terrifying creature behind one of them, we feel like we are right
14:54there in danger with them.
14:56Following that trend, in 2007 we get another up-close-and-personal scare from the POV of
15:02a character using a camera and light to explore an attic.
15:05Taking their time, scanning a full 360 degrees, we're still not prepared when this boy's
15:12face pops up screaming at us.
15:14Perhaps the most unexpected jump scares come in non-horror films, like this one in 2008's
15:20The Dark Knight, when a Batman effigy slams into a skyscraper window out of nowhere.
15:26Cue the non-horror jump scare montage.
15:30It's 2010.
15:32Paranormal Activity 2 employs security-camera style footage to up the realism, making it
15:38that much more effective when before our eyes, with seamless practical effects, the house
15:44cabinet simultaneously bursts open.
15:47Possibly an homage to The Sixth Sense?
15:51Pacing can be a bit of a pain.
15:54Possibly an homage to The Sixth Sense?
15:58Pacing plays a big role in how we feel about a jump scare.
16:01Insidious director James Wan employed a simple shot-reverse-shot format of characters talking
16:07at a table, unconsciously relaxing the audience into the flow of the conversation.
16:12So when we cut back to Patrick Wilson's character and a terrifying demon is just over his shoulder,
16:17we are not ready for it.
16:19Sinister takes the found-footage jump scare and switches it up, putting us in the POV
16:24of the antagonist as opposed to our main character holding the camera.
16:28As he creeps around, he watches people through the windows.
16:31The muted audio makes us subconsciously let our guard down.
16:37So when the lawnmower suddenly runs over the face of a man accompanied by an otherworldly
16:42scream, audiences were jolted awake.
16:46As the webcam became a more commonly used communication tool, there was bound to be
16:50a found-footage jump scare utilizing this technology.
16:53Here, in VHS, we have two people speaking over the internet, and from the darkness behind
17:00one comes the ghostly image of a child rushing into the room and slamming the door.
17:052014's The Babadook played with how the monster actually moves to implement a jump scare.
17:11When the protagonist removes the covers to look up at the ceiling, she is shocked to
17:14see the Babadook.
17:19But the jump scare comes when it flies at her in a single, straight, stop-motion way.
17:25We don't see it getting closer.
17:27It just is closer.
17:29And closer.
17:30And closer.
17:33In The Conjuring, we get a jump scare from what is typically not the source of anyone's
17:37fear.
17:39A pair of hands clapping.
17:41It Follows director David Robert Mitchell built tension by continually delaying gratification
17:46in a series of fake-outs.
17:48Each time, the protagonist opens the door where you're expecting something terrifying
17:52to leap at her with a loud scream and burst of music, but instead, she finds her concerned
17:57friends.
17:59So when the creepy, tall figure slowly and quietly emerges from the shadows behind her
18:05friend, the payoff is huge.
18:10In 2015, Hell House LLC added a new layer to the jump scare when knowledge the audience
18:15learns later makes the initial jump scare even more frightening.
18:19Here, the character is startled by what he thinks is his friend Tony in a creepy clown
18:24mask.
18:25He then walks away and discovers Tony sitting in another room.
18:30But if Tony's there, who's in the clown costume?
18:35In IT Chapter 1, as the kids watch the projector speed up, we can see what's coming.
18:40The slow reveal of the face of Pennywise in the photo being projected.
18:48What we don't expect is his humongous crazed face to actually pop out of the projector
18:56screen.
18:59And now, we're in the 2020s.
19:052020s Invisible Man employs a unique way of revealing a jump scare.
19:20Instead of lights coming up, or a door opening, or something popping out of a hiding place,
19:24our protagonist dumps a can of paint down some attic stairs, exposing the Invisible
19:29Man is just inches from her face.
19:33In 2022's Smile, we have no reason to have our guard up at all, as this out-of-focus
19:38but completely normal-looking character approaches the protagonist sitting in her car in broad
19:42daylight.
19:43So when the head defies all physics and comes into view in the window, even seasoned horror
19:49veterans were caught off guard.
19:51For decades, jump scares have had audiences leaping out of their seats.
19:55It has bled into every part of pop culture, even reaching video games and music videos.
20:02Who will be the next innovator to build upon the formula, and how will they do it?
20:06The only thing we can say with certainty is, no one will see it coming.
20:13It's a cat.
20:14Cut to credits.