Journal #23: Scary Story Techniques

What makes a scary story scary? I believe that the authors and movie producers use suspense in scary movies. The movies seem to always start out as a normal, day to day story line and then all of the sudden there is a scary scene. Then the movie goes down another slow path until there is another scary scene. I think that the Paranormal Activity movies are great examples of a good scaring technique. The movie always starts out as a normal day and the camera just gives you an over view of the house and the people in the house and closely related family. Then at night, there is always something a little bit sketchy going on. In the beginning of the movie the nights are always just a little bit scary and then as the movie goes on, the nights get gradually scarier. They also use shadowing and strange noises to make the setting scarier. Gross and ugly things can also make things more scary in a literary work or movie. Slow continuous movements can also make someone or something scary because things are said to move like that if they are possessed by the devil. Scary stories usually have a "bad guy" or a threatening antagonist. A lot of scary stories involve death and or dying because that is something that most humans are scared of. We all know that everyone is going to die eventually, but people are scared of dying in a scary or haunted way. I was trying to think about what makes a haunted house haunted, and the only thing that I was able to come up with was the strange noises and the dustiness with cobwebs. Creaky floors can be scary because it makes you think that there is something or someone in your house coming to get you. Many people are also scared of the dark, so most scary movies have mostly dark scenes. People in disguise can also be scary because you never know who might be hiding in the disguise.