Sound and voiceover

Horror movies rely upon sound more than many of key features and other genres. In past horror movies directors often used a term called ‘mickey mousing’, this is when the music matches the action of the film. For example if the character is running, the music will get faster, if the character is creeping around, the music will be slow as well. This technique is not used as much in today’s horror films, this is because there are more violent and gruesome movies out now then there ever was. The directors do not want to anything to distract the audience from the actual scenes; this emphasizes the audience’s attention on the scene which makes it gorier. Furthermore in past horror movies the directors use to use a lot more diegetic sounds, for example a radio comes on by itself to play, this use to create suspense in the audience as supernatural entities was a huge fear in those days.

The music in horror films can often be forgotten by the audience however it plays a major part in developing the atmosphere in horror movies. For example a common way directors use sound in horror movies in when there is an important scene coming up, they have eerie music playing leading up to the scene the music is unpleasant and therefore is not something the audience likes, this makes them feel uncomfortable which adds to the suspense and tension in the atmosphere. Moreover the pace of the music in a film can alert and build tension within the audience, for example the pace of the music usually starts slowly and then gets faster and faster until something happens. I have taken this film trailer and analysed the sound:

g 

There are many diegetic sounds in this trailer to begin with, for example a camera shutter and screams. We also hear many things happening without seeing them, we also hear a clicking clock that gets faster and faster which builds tension, these are all diegetic sounds. When the character is being haunted there is a very slow and steady soundtrack and helps the audience to emphasise with her.

Directors use voiceovers in trailers to give the audience a brief synopsis to what the film is going to be about, the voiceover is usually very enigmatic which encourages the audience to go and see the film, the same voice is often used throughout the trailer which gives the audience continuity and does not confuse the audience, furthermore traditionally the voiceover is usually a man's voice opposed to a females. This is an example of a film trailer that uses a voiceover: