DEAR HOLYWOOD, RE: 'sudden screaming ghost faces'

I agree with the overuse of cheap scares in horror films nowadays but much of the fault must be attributed to us as the viewing audience. There have been a few fairly recent horror films that don't rely on cheap scares all that much (The Others comes to mind) but then if you go to that message board you'll see people complaining how boring and unscary the movie is. Unfortunately the horror genre has two distinct, divided audiences: ones that like cheap scares, blood, and gore (Nightmare on Elm Street remake for example) or those who appreciate the atmospheric tension like in 1980's The Changeling or The Others. Movie studios must appeal to a broad audience and so its not surprising that recent horror films have been attempting to bridge these two audiences together by having cheap scares along with a tense atmosphere. I myself prefer the atmosphere and build up of tension rather than loud noises and screaming ghost faces as a means to scare the audience but I guarantee that if all those cheap scares had been removed from The Woman in Black, half of the posters on this board would go on and on about how boring the movie was. So really the blame must be attributed in part to us.

Pfft. Jump scares ARE cheap. Anyone can make something suddenly appear and accompany it with a loud sound... It's lazy and almost always out of place. Feels like a theme park ride.

Anyway, you can -- though this takes better directors -- scare by a brooding mood/atmosphere, things creeping up on characters, hopeless situations, etc. (For instance, look at the end of [REC]. No jump scare, but it freaked the bejeezus out of me. I genuinely felt horror.) Seriously, a successful jump scare doesn't actually scare you, it STARTLES you, and that't quite a huge difference. There's no fear, just a reflex. But sure that can be a rush too. Not what I prefer, however.

Love the RPG joke, by the way.

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Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

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i always thought that the whole point of a creepy atmosphere and a build up of tension was to eventually make the viewer soil their pants when something freaky jumps out from nowhere...without the jumpy bit then whats gonna scare people?

i personally thought this film was great with 2 or 3 genuine scary parts where i couldn't help but jump out of my seat.The rest of the time i was glued to the screen as the freaky setting,music and strange noises had me coiled like a spring.

also the 6.6 rating on this movie is a joke, more like a 7 - 7.5 in my opinion.

The fact is that European countries has jumped on the "hollywood" formula a long time ago. And that this being a hammer horror film makes it all more disappointing, the old hammer horror movies used fear and atmosphere instead of CGI ghosts and fake scares. The Orphanage was I could example of how it should be done!

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Yes, jump-scares are a cliche in horror movies, but not necessarily a bad one. The worst cliches are the ones that build up to a jump scare and there is no payoff, just a false alarm. I hate those. A movie can get away with one or two of those near the beginning, but if it's still using them near the end of the film, it probably doesn't have much to scare you with in general.

The reasons I like movies like Woman in Black and The Strangers is because when the scene and music builds up to a scare, there is actually something there that can be considering frightening. No false alarms. No non-payoffs.