"The iconic shower scene in Psycho was originally supposed to play out without music. Instead composer Bernard Herrmann created The Murder: as the killing transpires, violins shriek and scream along with the victim. The film's director, Alfred Hitchcock, reportedly later said that 33 percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music. In most horror flicks, the emotional current that carries the viewers is the music, which accelerates their anticipation and heightens the jump scares."
"Studies have shown that certain fearful music activates the brain's alarm-response system. So what is it that makes some music sound scary? Psychoacoustics researchers have found that some auditory features that are common in horror music are inherently frightening. The most obvious way music can scare us is by literally imitating screams, like Psycho does. Here, the instruments mimic a quality of human screams called roughness."
Music often carries the emotional current in horror films, accelerating anticipation and heightening jump scares. Bernard Herrmann composed The Murder for Psycho so violins shriek and scream with the victim, and the film's director later attributed roughly a third of Psycho's effect to the music. Undulating synthesizers drive Halloween, dissonant clarinets underpin Hereditary, and a 1930s recording enhances Get Out. Certain fearful music activates the brain's alarm-response system. Some auditory features in horror music are inherently frightening. Roughness imitates human screams by producing rapidly fluctuating amplitude from chaotic vocal-cord vibration, and musicians push instrument limits to recreate it.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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