I'm sick of directors/editors using jump scares in non-horror movies

7 months ago by anonymouse2 to c/movies

I get it. They want the audience to feel the same fear the character is feeling in the moment. But to me, a jump scare is pretty much the laziest way to do that. And for people like me with already existing anxiety issues, it makes the rest of the movie an unpleasant experience. Instead of engaging with the story, I'm just trying to protect myself against the next time this mystery movie, or whatever, wants to scare the shit out of me. I've been an avid movie goer for years, but the problem has me thinking I might start watching most movies at home now where I can control the volume.

Melonpoly 34 points 7 months ago

I'm sick of jump scares in any movie. They are a lazy technique.

path: 0 22929890, hotness: undefined, score: 34, children: 1
anonymouse2 5 points 7 months ago

I tend to agree. But at least its expected in a horror movie. You go knowing what you're getting yourself into. It's the lack of expectation that makes it even worse in non-horror movies.

path: 0 22929890 22930341, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
MapleFawn 14 points 7 months ago

Any movie! A jump scare in a horror movie is super boring it is not horror it is not clever or ever used well. It is just boring!

path: 0 22930060, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 0
Curious_Canid 9 points 7 months ago

I have always admired John Carpenter for working in the opposite direction. He likes to show you a scene where you gradually realize that something is wrong. When you do, you get the same adrenaline jolt as from a jump scare. Or he will show you something terrifying that is going to happen, then make you wait while watching it arrive.

path: 0 22933677, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 7
toynbee 4 points 7 months ago

I haven't watched much of John Carpenter's work, so I can't comment on this sentiment particularly, but I have always liked a psychological trick Terry Pratchett used to describe the machinations of Granny Weatherwax and her approach to stealth. (Yeesh, I need to read those books again, it's been years.)

I can't remember the exact quote and won't do it justice, but the message is something like "over time you noticed a familiar shape in the darkness, something like a coat, then you noticed what might have been a boot, then suddenly you realized she has always been there."

Sir Pterry doesn't use it in the context of horror, at least not for the reader, but I feel like it would fit that well.

path: 0 22933677 22940024, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 6
Bosht 3 points 7 months ago

Amazing quote but real quick if you haven't seen Carpenter's The Thing go do so immediately. Best horror movie in my book and wish daily I could watch it for the first time again.

path: 0 22933677 22940024 22961909, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 5
toynbee 2 points 7 months ago

Oh, I have. Good movie. Still not sure who's the Thing at the end.

path: 0 22933677 22940024 22961909 22962029, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 4
Bosht 2 points 6 months ago

Honestly part of the fun of the movie. Specifically for the ending though, by what they show, you can assume that neither of them are based on the fact they are the only 2 left. If they both were, then there would be no reason to remain disguised. If one of them was, they could simply kill the other as there's no benefit to remaining disguised. That aside, tracking who is a Thing and who isn't is not simple at all.

path: 0 22933677 22940024 22961909 22962029 23009195, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 3
etherphon 7 points 7 months ago
path: 0 22930361, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 2
lemmylump 2 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the warning.

path: 0 22930361 22936769, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
etherphon 1 point 7 months ago
path: 0 22930361 22936769 22936834, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
AmidFuror 6 points 7 months ago

They should just include jump scares in the movie rating so people who don't like them can avoid them. It's like listing main ingredients in menu food descriptions. I don't like mushrooms, but I can understand that others might like them included. Just let me know what dishes they're in.

path: 0 22931075, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
aedelred 5 points 7 months ago

I don't like jump scares, even in horror movies. I feel like they use jump scares and excessive gore as cheat codes when they can't write a decent plot.

Edit: Not that excessive gore bothers me, and it can be cool at times, but it needs to be backed up by a decent story or its pointless to me.

path: 0 22931726, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
Ilandar 5 points 7 months ago

I can't say I agree or even recognise this as a problem with films themselves, but I'm very sympathetic as I know someone who also avoids many films because of their panic disorder. They also mostly watch at home now, unless it's something very light with minimal shocks.

path: 0 22929921, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
doodledup 2 points 7 months ago

Extend this to Horror movies.

path: 0 22938399, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Marshezezz 1 point 7 months ago
path: 0 22931840, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
lath 1 point 7 months ago

Amazingly though, jump scare pranks are quite popular in the low effort short videos communities.

path: 0 22931069, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
acosmichippo 1 point 7 months ago

Was this prompted by

Tap for spoiler

Project Hail Mary by chance? If so, i thought that scene was particularly bad because it was totally out of character for Rocky in the rest of the film. Two highly intelligent individuals from species trying to make first contact and one of them decides to slam itself into the barrier before announcing its presence in a non threatening way.

overall i loved the movie but that was one thing that should have been done better, or not at all.

path: 0 22950049, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1
anonymouse2 2 points 7 months ago

One hundred percent spot on.

path: 0 22950049 22954720, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
movies
movies

@lemmy.world

login for more options
14340
1964
1993

Lemmy

Welcome to Movies, a community for discussing movies, film news, box office, and more! We want this to be a place for members to feel safe to discuss and share everything they love about movies and movie related things. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow!


Related Communities:

!books@lemmy.world - Discussing books and book-related things.

!comicbooks@lemmy.world - A place to discuss comic books of all types.

!marvelstudios@lemmy.world - LW's home for all things MCU.


While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by the Lemmy.World Terms of Service: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

  1. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.

  2. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.

  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed

  4. Shitposts and memes are allowed until they prove to be a problem.

    Regarding spoilers; Please put "(Spoilers)" in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers, as we do not currently have a spoiler tag available. If your post contains an image that could be considered a spoiler, please mark the thread as NSFW so the image gets blurred. As far as how long to wait until the post is no longer a spoiler, please just use your best judgement. Everyone has a different idea on this, so we don't want to make any hard limits.

    Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread. Most of the Lemmy clients don't support this but we want to get into the habit as clients will be supporting in the future.

Failure to follow these guidelines will result in your post/comment being removed and/or more severe actions. All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. We ask that the users report any comment or post that violates the rules, and to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting.

go to feed...