10 Tricks Horror Movies Use To Scare You

It’s a trick that essentially involves breaking the fourth wall to involve the audience directly in the film. We all know it and we’ve all seen it used really badly. Sprinkle this in at an inappropriate moment and it’ll end up looking like an actor accidentally caught the camera dead-on, instead of bringing you into the waters it’ll completely drain the immersion.

Do it well, though, and having a character look down the barrel straight into the audience’s eyes can have a truly chilling effect.

If it’s a monster that gives you the ol’ googly eyes then you get the benefit of feeling seen, like you’ve been spotted by the baddie and could be next for the chopping block. Alternatively you can be made to feel involved in the events of the movie in a sort of complicit way, as if you’re somehow responsible for what is happening but can’t control it, making you feel more invested in the outcome.

Films like Funny Games, I Blame Society and Memories Of Murder do this expertly. Whilst the former makes you a neutral, unhelping party in the torture and murder of a family, the latter begs to you help conclude events and let the narrative bleed over into real life. Horror movies exemplify everything we fear most, so obviously being sucked into them this way generates oodles of fear.