Well, what scares you?
First and foremost, this is not a “Scariest Movies Ever!” list. Fear is inherently personal, and not everything will scare everybody. That said, everyone does experience fear in some way. Fear is actually pretty personal; it’s shaped by your own thoughts, experiences, upbringing, and a multitude of other things. I often have the issue of people asking me if a movie is scary. It’s hard to answer because I don’t know what exactly scares the other person. I may or may not have been scared myself! That’s why, when I explain how a movie scared me in a review, I also explain the reason. If a movie scared you, it did it’s job — for you.
Fear Types
Was it a ghost? Was it an agent of evil? Or perhaps, the sound of a chainsaw? There are plenty of types of fear: psychological dread, existential fear, body horror, supernatural upsets, jumpscares… the list can go on. Someone who lost a family member they were close to under harsh circumstances may be more prone to getting riled up by a ghost story or serial killer documentary. Someone who has lived through tough times might dread watching natural disaster-based movies. The religious crowd and religious horror is an obvious one. For me, a lot of it has to do with sound and sudden realizations, like twists. And even then, it could change week to week, or year to year. After a string of on-point animal animal attack reviews, I am a bit jittery going outside in more rural areas. That was not even a thought in my mind during election season when women-based body horror and pious films were making a killing at the box office. Your own traumas and fears, anxieties, they all play a part in that fear response being generated.
Film Craft
And so does the film itself. Not just the plot, but how a film is actually made. What lenses provoke more fear, a wide lens or fish eye? Is the sound design showcasing every crack of bone and every gurgle of blood, or is it honing in on baselines and infrasound, or is it an uncomfortable silence? Is the darkness a little too dark? I think that oftentimes people forget how much work goes into making movies, into making fear. The techniques filmmakers use to create a world on screen can do wonders, whether they use them or not. Halloween was a totally different movie upon pre-screening without the soundtrack added in.
Imagination
In true “fear is personal” fashion, the things we find scariest are sometimes made up in our own heads. Some horror films thrive on the power of suggestion, leaving the audience to make up scenarios in their heads. If you think of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre right now, how much blood covered the rooms of the Sawyer house? Now go back and watch the movie again; there is surprisingly little blood on screen. Your memories and imagination take implied violence and amplify it.
Generational Fear
On that same note, what is scary to your mother may not be scary to you, and vice versa. Generational fears are a real thing. One of my family members was too scared to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street in the 80s and refuses to watch it now. I know NoES as being a silly ride with a cool slasher. This is even prevalent in horror trends from decade to decade. Kairo features a fear not only of the new (at the time) technology of the internet and impending loneliness because of it. While that may not be as heavy-hitting as it was 25 years ago, it was a genuine fear at the time. Today, with our seemingly symbiotic relationship with technology, rise of AI, and detachedness from nature, something as simple as an unexpected knock at the door can send chills down our spines.
The Answer
So back to the original question: what makes a horror movie truly scary? The answer just might be you. The best thing about this genre is that there are so many subgenres and they’re simultaneously all so different yet so similar. There is something for everybody — and I mean everybody. Keep searching for the thing that makes you tick, the thing that makes you wince. The thing that incites that fight or flight response that only primal fear can do just might surprise you.
The question should actually be “What scares you?”