You knew the moment you heard the “da dum, da dum” in “Jaws” that something bad was going to happen. And who could forget Janet Leigh’s bloodcurdling shower-scene scream in “Pyscho”? Filmmakers learned early that cinematic soundtracks can elicit powerful emotions, and now researchers may have figured out why a horror flick’s score can make your skin crawl.
The distorted and chaotic sounds in movies seem to mimic the cries that wild animals may have used for millions of years, says study co-author Daniel Blumstein, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Take a dog’s angry growl or a baby’s crying — we have evolved to be particularly attentive to evocative, high-pitched noises, which researchers call “nonlinear” vocalizations. These nonlinear sounds communicate danger or demand attention, the researchers say.
By exploring the use of sound in horror, action and dramatic films, Blumstein’s team hopes to better understand why particular noises elicit such strong emotional reactions. The study, reported online May 25 in Biology Letters, used computers to analyze 30-second soundtrack clips from iconic scenes in 102 popular films, including “Aliens,” “The Green Mile,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Titanic,” “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “Black Hawk Down.”
As they expected, the researchers found that horror movie soundtracks placed disturbing nonlinear sounds at key moments to elicit fearful responses. Adventure films also had more harsh male screams than expected. Dramatic film soundtracks, on the other hand, contained fewer noisy screams but many abrupt changes in frequency, which are meant to create those tear-inducing moments.
Silence, notes Blumstein, can affect our emotions as well. For instance, when caribou walk along the arctic tundra their ankles naturally click. If they no longer hear the clicking sound, they stop and look around. In films, silence can also be used to create suspense or signify something is wrong.
“The silent scene in ‘Jaws’ just before the shark attacks is incredibly scary,” Blumstein says.
Composers and filmmakers likely don’t understand exactly why their sound choices, or lack thereof, are so effective.
“They just intuitively know how to manipulate our emotions,” Blumstein adds.
Some researchers, however, cast strong doubt on these findings. They say the comparison of soundtrack sounds is not clear and perhaps subjective, the authors do not directly contrast the acoustic characteristics of animal cries and film scores (making this comparison tenuous), and also do not show whether these sounds actually evoke the emotional reactions in audiences they assume.
Blumstein and his team hope to clear up some of these concerns by designing their own film scores, manipulating different aspects of the music to see how people react. “This way we can directly see how moviegoers respond to the music,” Blumstein says.
