Crimson Peak: 8 Reasons 2015's Biggest "Horror" Is A Massive Disappointment

3. The Jump Scares Are Of The Ineffective Kind (And Overused)

How do you make a jump scare that little bit more effective? Why add in a big thumping note on the score, of course. That appears to the wisdom of every run-out horror franchise and, it turns out, Guillermo del Toro too. Now I get why filmmakers use this trick - in the immediate moment there's few things scarier than a jump shock and you want to mine that feeling for all it's worth. But being accompanied with a big boom rarely helps accentuate it, especially in more sudden jolts; your audience is just as likely to devolve into laughter as screams in an attempt to calm themselves, ruining any of the built-up tension. Crimson Peak's jump scares aren't quite that ruinous, but thanks to the audio beats still become rather ineffective distractions. Oddly enough, look to none other than M. Night Shyamalan to see it done right; in The Visit there's a totally unsignalled jump scare that is so utterly horrifying you're stuck in the cinema seat petrified, unable to even consider a laugh. And now I've just realised this year M. Night made a film better than Guillermo... Oh dear.