10 Horror Movies That Make Silence Terrifying
These films can scare without so much as a sound...
Everyone has their own anxieties that they can’t deal with seeing in horror movies. Whatever makes your blood run cold, however - whether it's masked killers, vengeful ghosts, or unfeeling monsters - can't hold a candle to one simple scare tactic:
Silence.
Imagine sitting in a dark room hearing some ungodly horrors outside your window or crawling in your walls for it to suddenly go quiet. What’s worse is knowing it’s there, unable to pinpoint where or even what it is - you're deprived of your senses and left on high alert, just waiting for whatever comes next.
Now these aren’t exclusively silent films as the title might suggest, just ones that use silence to frighten and mess with viewers, building up to scares or luring you into fake outs. When the silence strikes, in you know you're far from safe.
That feeling when a horror movie goes quiet puts you on the edge of your seat because you know that means something is coming. This list gives respect to all those films that can make silence terrifying.
10. Hush
Fitting a film titled Hush would make this list, however, it's for much more than the name. Mike Flanagan’s home invasion film absolutely terrifies with its simple yet effective premise.
The main character Maddie must defend herself from a masked man trying to kill her. However, she’s completely deaf, which is replicated for the viewer as the sound will dip out from time to time to show us Maddie’s perspective in the room.
As if watching this stalking by John Gallagher Jr isn’t creepy enough, depriving the viewer of a sense in extremely tense moments is heart pounding. This is solidified when we first meet the killer, who just strolls into Maddie’s house while she’s working and investigates the place without her even noticing - leaving most verbally screaming pantomime lines at the TV to no avail.
The lack of sound doesn't take away from the film’s atmosphere at any point, instead inviting us to empathise with Maddie in an incredibly intense way. We're forced to play a part of some sick killers’ game as he walks around the house trying everything he can to get to her, knowing she can’t call for help.
Just to make sure you look behind you a little more next time you're home alone.