Most audiences agree that jump scares are the bane of modern horror movies.
Too many use them as a shortcut to frights, sacrificing mood and atmosphere for a quick
bang that does nothing but startle.
Like any tool in an artist's arsenal, however, it all comes down to execution.
A well-placed jump can serve as a satisfying payoff to slow-burning tension, or it can
rocket you forward into a story with a burst of thrilling adrenaline.
If you're curious about how an often-misused trope can be successful, steel your nerves,
because we're about to dive headfirst into some of the best scares that will make you
jump out of your seat.
What's in the boat?
Jaws invented the summer blockbuster by deftly blending charming humor, rollicking adventure,
and insightful character moments, all punctuated by a few well-placed scares.
One of them in particular never fails to make audiences scream.
Before the movie has even shown us the shark, Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss, takes
a scuba dive to investigate an abandoned fishing boat.
Just as he reaches out to check a tooth lodged in the mangled hull, well…
After being unsatisfied with the scare in test screenings, Spielberg re-shot the scene
in editor Verna Fields' swimming pool at his own expense.
He was determined to get the timing just right, and all that effort was worth it.
Jaws still plays on big screens most summers, and you can reliably watch the crowd ripple
with shock even four decades later.
Raptor in the shed
Nearly 20 years after Jaws, Spielberg unleashed another adventure blockbuster that combined
action with jump-out-of-your-skin scares: Jurassic Park.
While most of the park's dino denizens are deadly in their own right, there's one in
particular that has us terrified of maintenance sheds all these years later.
Throughout the movie, characters speak of Velociraptors in hushed tones.
Dr. Grant is clearly horrified to learn they're being bred in the park, and game warden Robert
Muldoon warns everyone of the danger they present.
But it isn't until Ellie Sattler, played by Laura Dern, ventures into a maintenance shed
that we see just why the adult raptors are so deadly.
"Mr. Hammond, I think we're back in business!"
It's cool if you peed your pants a little, it's kind of a rite of passage.
Closet corpse
Gore Verbinski's remake of the Japanese movie Ringu, 2002's The Ring is a quiet, eerie story
with no gore or explicit violence in sight.
It relies on uncanny imagery and unsettling sounds to create an oppressive atmosphere
of dread.
This makes it all the more startling when Verbinski does sneak in one big jump where
you least expect it.
In a scene that otherwise lacks any serious tension, Ruth Embry, portrayed by Lindsay
Frost, recounts the story of finding her daughter's twisted corpse.
Without warning, Verbinski cuts to ...
"I saw her face."
(When you finally watch R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" in its entirety)
The movie never relies on jump scares afterward, but the fear that this early shock might be
repeated serves to enhance the tension all the way to the haunting final frame.
"Don't you understand, Rachel?
She never sleeps."
The thing behind Winkie's
While surrealist auteur David Lynch has long been recognized as a master of the unsettling
and the uncanny, none of his films would comfortably fit in the "horror" category.
That's what makes it extra startling when he does go for moments of all-out terror,
as he does in Mulholland Drive.
Sitting in Winkie's Diner, Dan and Herb, played by Patrick Fischler and Michael Cooke, respectively,
discuss a nightmare the former had about a man that he can see through the walls.
"I had a dream about this place."
"Oh boy."
"You see what I mean?"
"OK.
So you had a dream about this place."
What begins as a fairly lighthearted conversation grows increasingly unnerving as Dan compares
the dream to reality.
The two men walk to the back of the diner, and, in typical Lynchian fashion, some truly
creepy stuff ensues.
It's a simple enough moment, but highly effective in capturing the surreal-yet-mundane logic
of a nightmare.
Death from above
Alfred Hitchcock's suspense masterpiece Psycho laid the foundation for the entire slasher
film genre, but it's mainly remembered for one particular sequence: the iconic shower
scene.
However, one Psycho scene remains a startling surprise for newcomers and fans alike.
When private investigator Milton Arbogast, portrayed by Martin Balsam, enters the Bates
house looking for clues, Hitchcock begins establishing a tension that's vaguely unsettling,
catching Arbogast glancing at each door and hallway before he begins slowly and carefully
climbing the stairs.
Suddenly …
Arbogast's stunned tumble down the stairs was achieved by standing Balsam in front of
a rear-projection falling shot.
The result feels just slightly wrong, enhancing the feeling that we, too, have just been the
victim of a sneak attack.
The Phantom unmasked
It may be tempting to cite jump scares as a symptom of Hollywood running out of ideas,
but they're almost as old as movies themselves, and the good ones still work.
One great example of this trick comes from Universal's 1925 silent production of The
Phantom of the Opera.
Lon Chaney was the first major icon of horror films, rising to prominence during the silent
era as "the Man of a Thousand Faces."
He crafted his own make-up effects, and there was seemingly no end to the amount of discomfort
he was willing to put himself through to spook his fans.
For Phantom, he devised an elaborate construction of wires and paint that gave him an alarmingly
skull-like face.
Chaney's creepy mug is first revealed when Christine, played by Mary Philbin, slowly
works up the courage to pull off his mask.
Stories of viewers fainting in the theater at the film's premiere quickly became something
of a Hollywood legend.
How much Universal may have played up these reports in advertising remains difficult to
say, but it's undeniable that the shock remains effective, even 90 years later.
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