10 Subtle Tricks Horror Movies Use To Scare You

This may be the least subtle secret used here, but even if the effect is pretty easy for the most untrained viewer to discern, the psychology behind the behind-the-scenes trick is interesting.

Many directors in horror, as well as action and sci-fi, will use coloured filters over their lighting apparatus in order to imbue a scene with a certain mood or feeling. Blue tones give a scene a detached, cool sensibility, which is how the cast of Miami Vice were able to wear all that pastel linen whilst still seeming serious and edgy.

Red light, however, creates an unconscious and intense reaction in viewers, signalling danger and excitement. As a result, scenes with no naturally occurring bursts of intense colour can be coated by a general red filter and the finished film sequence will engender a natural shock response from the viewer.

This one can be seen in the likes of Gaspar Noé's aforementioned Irréversible and 2010's trippy sci-fi horror Beyond the Black Rainbow, two very different films which prove everything from an intense gory ordeal to a tense conversation can be intensified with this method.