Sound is important in horror films to enhance the audience's emotional experience and create tension. Music can underline characters' unspoken thoughts, build continuity between scenes, and signal when tension rises or falls. Effective horror film soundtracks represent characters, set locations and time periods, parallel the action, and create convincing atmospheres. Iconic horror film scores, like those in A Quiet Place, The Return of the Living Dead, It Follows, Halloween, and The Descent use music, effects, and silences to generate anxiety and fear in viewers.

1. SOUND IN HORROR FILMS

2. Understanding how music can help create “meaning”
-enhance the audiences emotional experience/providing emotional focus
-underlining psychological refinements-the unspoken thoughts of a character, or the uns
-building a sense of continuity (moving in, out and bridging scenes)
-underpinning the theatrical build-up of a scene, and rounding it off with a sense of finalit
-when the music stops (silence) is very important as it creates a sense of tension.
Horror films are great at using sound to compound the anxiety you feel as you

3. -character representation / identification (good VS evil e.g. star wars
-setting the location
-setting the period
-paralleling the action
-creating a more convincing atmosphere of space and time
-serving as a kind of neutral background filler
non diegetic- added in post production
diegetic- recorded in production
deigns- the world of the narrative,clip
Why is sound important in horror films?
Music in horror movies allows to create unforgettable atmosphere which will

4. KEY SOUND TERMINOLOGY
soundtrack - the recorded sound element of a film
theme music/tune - a recurrent melody in the film
sound effects - sounds other than dialogue or music made artificial
ambient sound - buzz and/or surrounding sounds
dialogue - speech (what are they saying? how are they saying it?)
(accent,dialect,register,formal or informal)
foley sound-foley artist
voiceover-narration in a film not accompanied by a sync
direct address-when characters speak directly to the ca

5. 5 BEST FILMS FOR SOUND

6. A QUIET PLACE (2018)
You know the tense feeling you get when you watch a character creep tentatively a
The diegetic world of quiet provides the ideal soundscape for orchestral-driven jum

7. THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
Horror soundtracks aren't all creaky floorboards, in this film be prepare

8. IT FOLLOWS (2015)
Synth virtuoso John Carpenter pretty much carved the archetypical horror soundtrack
Expect sinister arpeggios that creep up on you, contrasted with unrelenting

9. HALLOWEEN (1978)
There’s a particularly aqueous feel to the direction and soundtrack of Carpenter’s films –

10. THE DESCENT (2005)
Neil Marshall’s British horror flick, which follows six women trapped in a humano
The cave itself is an effective soundscape - the setting’s innate eeriness and