Journal#23-Scary Stories

What are the details within a story that makes it truly thrilling, and essentially, scary?  Suspense is the main idea that most writers try to get through to the reader through their words and writing style. How they come across this suspense may be a good indicator to how well their thought process of writing the story is based.  Teasing the audience is a good way to keep them on the edge of their seats.  So lets say the villain or murderer, in this case, is hiding in the basement of the sorority house when all of the sorority girls thought that he was in the upstairs attic.   The last thing they expected when boarding up all the doors leading upstairs would be the killer standing behind them with a knife or crowbar in hand.  That adds thrill, the element of surprise, and of course, fright.  Now, something that is most recognizable in scary movies is the music.  It stands out to us even when we are not paying attention.  What if in the movie Jaws, there was no scary duh-duh music in the background? It wouldn't be as suspenseful, right?  As with all creepy movies, without the high pitched squeals and eerie deep tones, the basic idea of suspense is eliminated.  There will be no buildup without it, essentially.  The movie isn't as scary without the music.  It is as simple as that?  The next thing I look at when I am watching scary movies is outright fright and fear.  If there are ghosts or creepy villains, it is most likely going to scare me.  When characters or villains or even aliens pop out of nowhere, that is when it gets scary.  We all know the movie Signs with Mel Gibson, right?  Mel is not my favorite actor, but this movie had the right amount of fright within it because, when the little girl is out of bed at night and she looks out the window, BAM! There's an alien on her roof.  Now are you going to tell me that that would not scare the bejeezus out of you? It would me.  Surprise, music, and a lot of BAM! will make a movie scary.