Sound of horror

As someone who enjoys not only the entertainment of horror but is a horror writer himself, I very much found of the very thought of writing this paper. For starters sound is 50% of all visuals images seen on screen. Without sound you cannot have fear or suspense. For example I was playing a horror game called Dead Space. I was walking about an empty corridor with the only sound being my boots hitting the metal floor. I then came to a door at the end of the hall that swung open with a loud creaky “Smash!” The loud volume echoing through my surround sound system filled my once silent room with horror. I was scared shitless and “This is only a door,” I said. This is when I first realized how much sound as an impacted on horror. I played the same scene again years later but this time I turned the volume off. The sound was no longer scary and it was just a simple door on a spaceship filled with brain eating mutants. For the movie Psycho in its famous shower scene I believe this same theory applies. With the women scramming so loud in agony you just wishing it to stop and the sound of the knife meeting her flesh. The music ramping up and suddenly dissipating as the women’s heart stops dead in its tracks.