10 Tricks Horror Movies Use To Scare You
8. Showing You As Little As Possible
Many a horror has been ruined by showing far too much. The most powerful tool that a filmmaker can use against you is your own imagination, and if they end up making your mind redundant by bombarding you with images then your anxiety levels are going to go way down. When watching a horror movie, it is one of the very few scenarios where you actually want your anxiety levels to stay high.
We all suffer from the fear of the unknown, the anxiety-inducing recognition that there's so much that we don't understand and can't predict. By sparingly showing us what we're meant to be afraid of, filmmakers give us all the wiggle room in the world to build it up in our heads and make everything more scary.
Where films like Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark have failed is that they showed the monsters in full detail for extended periods of time. There's only so long you can look at something 'scary' before your body automatically calms itself down - it's classic conditioning. Plus, there's no way you can look at this guy for more than five seconds and not laugh because he seems to be made out of mashed potato - extra giggles included when you find out he kills people by hugging them to death.
Monster movies especially have to make careful note of this. Be a Jaws, don't be a mashed potato man.