A jump scare is a technique often used in horror films and video games, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a loud, frightening sound. The jump scare has been described as "one of the most basic building blocks of horror movies". Jump scares can surprise the viewer by appearing at a point in the film where the soundtrack is quiet and the viewer is not expecting anything alarming to happen, or can be the sudden payoff to a long period of suspense.
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Some critics have described jump scares as a lazy way to frighten viewers, and believe that the horror genre has undergone a decline in recent years following an over-reliance on the trope, establishing it as a cliché of modern horror films.
In film
Prior to the 1980s, jump scares were a relatively rare occurrence in horror movies; however, they became increasingly common in the early 80s as the slasher subgenre increased in popularity.
1976's Carrie has one of the first modern jump scares. The scene, which occurs at the end of the film, is credited as the inspiration for the use of a final jump scare in the 1980 movie Friday the 13th, to show that an apparently dead villain had survived.
The 1979 film When a Stranger Calls uses a form of jump scare to suddenly reveal the location of the antagonist to both the protagonist and the audience. Film writer William Cheng describes this as causing a "sudden vanishing of the protective walls surrounding the film's protagonist", in turn giving the viewer at home a sense that the intruder is also somehow closer to them.
The 2009 film Drag Me to Hell contains jump scares throughout, with director Sam Raimi saying he wanted to create a horror film with "big shocks that’ll hopefully make audiences jump."
In video games
Resident Evil is often cited as the first video game to use jump scares. The player, during the course of the game, walks through a hallway where the music begins to lower. About halfway through the hall, zombie dogs will suddenly leap through the windows and the music will peak in volume and intensity.
The video game Daylight was described as being a "vehicle for jump scares", and though reviewers praised its successful use of jump scares, they commented that as the game wore on jump scares alone weren't a sufficient tool for scaring players.
The 2014 video game franchise Five Nights at Freddy's was described as "perfect for live streaming" in part due to its use of jump scares.
In advertising
In 2004, K-fee (Kaffee), a caffeinated energy drink from Germany, launched a series of advertisements that featured a peaceful clip, such as a car cruising through a grassy hillside, or two lovers running toward each other at a beach. The clip is interrupted by a zombie or gargoyle popping up on the screen, along with a frightening scream, potentially scaring the viewer. At the end of the advertisement appears the slogan, "So wach warst du noch nie", which translates from German to "You’ve never been so awake", simulating the effect the energy drink will have on its consumers. Three "less caffeine" commercials were released, featuring a man in a monster suit or a man dressed as a teddy bear, minus the screams.
Internet screamers
An Internet screamer or simply, screamer is an image, video or application on the Internet that has a sudden change designed to startle the user. They often include a scary face with a loud scream. Screamers have been around since at least 1996 with some of the best known appearing at that time.
An early example of an Internet screamer is The Maze by Jeremy Winterrowd. Disguised as a computer game, the player is supposed to use their mouse to move a blue square along a given path without touching the walls. As the player progresses, the walls get smaller, making it more difficult for the player to avoid touching the walls, and forces the player to bring their faces closer to the screen. At first, if the player accidentally touches the wall, it will lead back to the start menu and the player has to start all over again. However, once the player reaches level 3, the walls get so thin that it becomes very difficult to avoid touching the wall. When the player reaches a certain point, whether they touch a wall or not, an image of the possessed Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) from the film The Exorcist suddenly appears on the screen along with a piercing scream.
After the rise of YouTube, Internet screamers gradually transitioned from chain emails to reaction videos where people filmed as they pranked others to click on an Internet screamer and recorded their reactions. A prominent early screamer reaction video was uploaded on YouTube on May 2006 by user "Can’t We All Just Get Along?". The video features a boy sitting at a desk while playing The Maze. In the video, he asks, "Why can’t I touch this?" and shortly after, a horrifying image pops up with the piercing scream. The boy screams, hits the computer screen repeatedly, runs to the person filming him and starts crying. Since the upload, the video has been viewed over 25 million times. Maze reaction videos were featured twice on America’s Funniest Home Videos.