Top 10 most frightening sounds in movies
| LISTS - MOVIE LISTS |
The sound of terror can summon worse demons than the image...
The horror of a truly terrifying sound-effect is contextual: a brilliantly-executed effect can be killed by poor placement, whereas the most mundane noise can send shivers up the spine with the right counterpoint...
10: Jurassic Park III (2001) - It's for you
Phone calls can come at the most inconvenient moments, but they're rarely quite as unwelcome as in this scene from Joe Johnston's sequel to the 1993 Spielberg classic. The true terror of this moment is similar to that of The Innocents, in that the ring-tone reveals something awful that has been looking at you for a long time, and wondering what its next course of action should be. It's the sheer mundanity of the sound that succeeds in doubling the shock value, as we realise that the Spinosaurus is having his lunch repeat on him in the most disturbing way...
9: The Entity (1982) - Welcome home
Sidney J. Furie's fictionalised tale of a case of 'sexual possession' has a number of notable shock moments, but none quite so effective as in the last four minutes of the movie. Having battled with an evil incubus for a soul-destroying two hours, poor Barbara Hershey deserves a better ending than she gets from the abusive apparition, who, upon her return to the home that it has ravaged in every way possible, declares in a terrifying bass drawl: Welcome home, c***.
8: Star Wars (1977) - Where's my inhaler?
George Lucas's seminal re-visit to the 1930s Saturday morning serials drew from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in many (well acknowledged) ways, from the development of Doug Trumbull's rudimentary motion control rig to the clinical aspect of the Corellian ship that Lord Vader's Star Destroyer captures and boards at the movie's start. But there's no tribute quite as obvious or innovative as the sequestering of 2001's trademark respiration sound (used in the EVA scenes) for the emphysematic audio signature of the Sith lord...
7: The Shining (1980) - Vocal effect in main title
Composers Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind came up with astonishing vocalisations for Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel of possession and cabin-fever. There's a Grudge-style ratchety-groan in the soundtrack's title theme that, in the final movie, was moved to a later point in the film, but the theme itself is in any case a hymn to damnation to rival the darkest imaginings of Diamonda Galas (and if she doesn't own the soundtrack, I'll buy a hat and eat it). About the 2.37 mark in the clip below comes a segment that turned my blood to ice when I heard a radio ad for the movie in the dismal winter of 1980...
6: Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Now I'm pissed
I admit that I'm easy meat for any xenomorph outings, bar the ones with predators in them. But I wasn't expecting the sound engineers in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's sequel to the 1979 Ridley Scott classic to depart quite so radically from the sibilant sound effects of the three previous movies; so when the 'alien' gets pissed off at tinkering scientist Brad Dourif for his control-freakery, the 'lion'-based roar scared the hell out of me...
Report an error in this article
Add comment (comments from logged in users are published immediately, other comments await moderator approval)
<map name="Map"><area shape="rect" coords="5,10,61,64" href="https://twitter.com/#!/shadowlocked" target="_blank" alt="Join us on Twitter">
<area shape="rect" coords="64,10,111,67" href="https://twitter.com/#!/shadowlocked" target="_blank" alt="Join us on Twitter">
<area shape="rect" coords="115,9,160,65" href="https://plus.google.com/102463951599361460327/posts" target="_blank" alt="The very best of Shadowlocked at Google Plus - no ads, reviews or fat.">
<area shape="rect" coords="164,10,209,64" href="http://www.shadowlocked.com/index.php?option=com_ninjarsssyndicator&feed_id=2&format=raw" target="_blank" alt="The Shadowlocked RSS feed">
<area shape="rect" coords="219,9,293,66" href="http://www.shadowlocked.com/shadowlocked_podcast/" target="_blank" alt="Shadowlocked's Podcast page">
</map>
- Top 10 Mindf**k Movies
- Top 10 mindf*** TV episodes
- Top 10 images of distant horror in the movies
- The 50 greatest matte paintings of all time
- 8 Reasons Why The Riddler in Batman 3 Would Be a Bad Idea
- Top 10 Twilight Zone twists
- Top 10 most frightening sounds in movies
- Top 50 movies of the 1980s
- Top 10 quotes from The Inbetweeners
- The 8 Most Annoying Kids in Film
- 10 Las Vegas Films That Will Make Your Next Visit Look Terrific
- Top 10 most satisfying demises of 'the boss' in movies
- Top 10 episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Top 20 lunatic cameos in movies
- Ten Ways The iPhone Has Already Killed The Classic Movie
- The top ten most undeserved Oscars of the last 20 years
- Top 10 incongruous extended nudity in movies
- Top 10 Movie Loners
- Top Ten Cat Films
- Top 100 movies of the 1970s
- Top 10 movie horror anthologies
- Top 8 ‘what happened to that guy?’
- 8 movie predictions the directors weren't expecting
- The Top 10 coolest comic-book villains in movies
- Ten classic films you should admit you've never seen
- Top 10 Fast Food Movies
- Top Ten Baby Films. Without getting broody.
- The ten most important characteristics of The Doctor
- Wigipedia! The top 10 least convincing hair-pieces in movies
- 10 underrated recommendations for Netflix UK
- Ten Actors and Actresses Who Deserve Better Roles
- Top 10 Horror Kids
- The top 5 performances of Tim Curry
- The films of John Carpenter - in order of importance
- Doctor Who companions: The Ultimate Tournament
- The 12 most deliciously-deranged movie monologues
- Top 10 films that defined the 90s
- Top 8 secrets of cheap sci-fi TV and movies
- 9 potential new epochs for the Assassin's Creed franchise
- 15 historically significant 'lost' films
- 5 Youtube Experiences to Brighten your week
- 5 'logical' reasons to cast aside your doubts and embrace Star Trek Into Darkness
- 7 reasons why Star Wars Episode VII could be the highest-grossing film of all time
- 5 Youtube Experiences to brighten your week
- 5 things we 'actually' want from the Superhero genre
Comments
I know the film gets trashed by many people, but that sound... I had nightmares about it for weeks after seeing that film.
1. The power goes out in the station as Fuchs is working at his desk. He gets up, lights a candle and steps by the door...just as 'someone' walks by him and there is this electronic 'gutter/snarl'! It is repeated in the scene where the 'Blair'-thing suddenly appears behind Garry right before he attacks him. To this day, those two scenes and that horrid sound set my hair and teeth on edge WITHOUT FAIL!!
I'm going to go turn all the lights in the house on now.