Stephanie O'Brien
  • Home
    • About Stephanie
    • Privacy Policy
  • Stories
    • Novels >
      • The Silent Fugitive Series >
        • My Fugitive
        • Voice of a Silent Fugitive
        • Silent Fugitive: The Complete Series
      • Heroic Lies
      • Catgirl Roommate
    • Short Stories >
      • The Aristocrats and the Beasts
      • Upholding the Covenant
      • The Echoes In Our Heart
      • Living Through You
    • Fanfiction >
      • Undertale - Just Cause >
        • Just Cause, Chapter 2
        • Just Cause, Chapter 3
        • Just Cause, Chapter 4
        • Just Cause, Chapter 5
        • Just Cause, Chapter 6
        • Just Cause, Chapter 7
        • Just Cause, Chapter 8
        • Just Cause, Chapter 9
        • Just Cause, Chapter 10
        • Just Cause, Chapter 11
        • Just Cause, Chapter 12
        • Just Cause, Chapter 13
        • Just Cause, Chapter 14
        • Just Cause, Chapter 15
        • Just Cause, Chapter 16
        • Just Cause, Chapter 17
        • Just Cause, Chapter 18
      • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand >
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 2
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 3
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 4
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 5
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 6
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 7
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 8
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 8
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 9
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 10
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 11
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 12
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 13
        • Skyrim - Your Truth Cannot Stand, Chapter 14
      • Farscape - Means to an End
      • Don't Starve - Four Times I Begged Them
      • Avengers Endgame - Baby Pictures: How Endgame Should Have Ended
      • Subnautica Below Zero - It Will Be Okay
      • Subnautica Below Zero - Regrets of Sellswords and Scientists
      • Subnautica Below Zero - Naked Secrecy
      • Subnautica Below Zero - I Wish You Were​
      • Wakfu - Echoes of Bitter Comfort
    • Undertale Webcomic - Just Cause
  • Art & Commissions
    • Commissions
    • NFTs
    • Undertale Fan Art
    • Farscape pictures
  • Merch
    • Pride flag art
    • Abstract art
    • Symmetrical art
    • Floral art
    • Animal and People Art
    • Text Art
  • Videos
    • Art Videos
    • All Farscape Videos
    • Funny Farscape Videos
    • Peaceful Farscape Videos
    • Energetic Farscape Videos
    • Farscape Songs
    • Undertale Videos
    • Extended Songs
  • Patreon & Ko-Fi
    • Patreon
    • Ko-Fi
  • Contact
  • Blog

Five Horror Story Techniques to Scare Your Audience

5/4/2016

0 Comments

 
While I tend to lean toward sci-fi and fantasy for my entertainment, I'm also a fan of horror when it's done really well.

In the process of reading books, watching movies, and playing video games that are designed to frighten or unnerve their audience, I've noticed five techniques that stories often use to get a reaction:

#1: Jump scares

Picture
One of the easiest and most obvious ways to frighten an audience is to throw something abruptly at the screen, preferably while gouging out their eardrums with a nerve-shredding roar or screech.

If you want to keep video gamers and moviegoers tense and on edge, this is a pretty effective way to do it. That said, it's best used in moderation to prevent people from getting used to it - or worse, or concluding that you're a one-trick pony with no imagination.

There are two ways to make a jumpscare especially effective:

1. Use it at a moment when the viewer is already tense. At this point, there's probably expecting it, but that foreknowledge may not be enough to calm their strained nerves.

2. Use it in a situation where the audience normally feels safe - especially if a scary scene ended recently and your viewers have started to let down their guard, but they're still  wound up.

Unfortunately, I've found it pretty much impossible to pull off anything close to a jumpscare in a non-illustrated novel; a capslocked word just doesn't have the same audio-visual punch that a screeching animatronic or howling zombie does. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.


#2: Blood and gore

Picture
Also known as a "red paint sale".
For movies, TV shows, video games and novels alike, this is probably the easiest technique to plaster all over a story. It doesn't take much imagination to paint the walls with intestines, so like jumpscares, it can look boring and tacky if overused.

However, it can be highly effective if used right. A heavily gore-splattered room is an obvious indication that something horrific happened here, and if it's paired with a blood streak leading in the direction the protagonist has to go, it adds an extra layer of "Oh CRAP, what's ahead of me?!"


Also, while a nonstop parade of red walls can numb the audience in short order, a little blood can go a long way in a story where there's normally none of it. The very fact that it's rare makes it stand out as a sign that something is seriously and unusually wrong.

And if there's blood where there's no reason for there to be blood, like bleeding walls or a sink bubbling red? Guess what, protagonist - something supernatural is probably at work, and it isn't friendly. Good luck with the rest of your life.
​

#3: A creepy atmosphere

Picture
If you're looking to subtly spook your audience, as opposed to dragging a slow parade of claws across their nerves, the atmosphere of your story is one of your best tools.

Uncanny stillness, hostile or hungry noises, flickers of movement on the edge of their senses, an eerie soundtrack, ominous warnings, an environment in a state of disrepair... there are many ways to hint that all is not well, and it's time to start worrying.

This kind of horror story can actually be almost soothing at times, while still maintaining the creepy tension that characterizes subtle horror. And when it does show its fangs in the form of blood or jumpscares, the fact that you haven't gotten the audience used to them can make them all the more terrifying.
​

#4: Subtle signs that something's off

Picture
Maybe the landscape changed inexplicably. Or everyone's stares are either strangely blank, or just a little too focused on YOU. Maybe everyone's OK with things the protagonist and audience find odd or disturbing. Or perhaps something happened that shouldn't be possible - or was it all in your head?

Whatever it is, it's subtle, it's wrong, and it's unnerving. It takes more skill to pull off than gore or jump scares, but Silent Hill 2, The Invasion, and some of Ted Dekker's novels do it and do it well.

#5: Body horror

Picture
The fact that it used to be human makes it all the more disturbing.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver aptly summed up a very sound principle of horror stories that involve any form of mutation:

"When you meet anything that used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it, and feel for your hatchet.”

Perhaps out of an instinct to avoid contagious diseases, and more obviously because we can mentally contrast the gruesome creature in front of us to what it used to look like, humans are naturally wired to be creeped out by things that look almost human but aren't.

Deformed animals can work too, especially if they look diseased enough to trigger the "avoid contagion" instinct.

And if there are signs that, underneath the ghastly mental and physical transformation, the original consciousness is still alive and suffering?

Hello, nightmare fuel.


What is your favorite of these 5 techniques?

And do you have any ideas for how to make a jumpscare in a novel that doesn't involve pop-ups or illustrations?


I look forward to your comments.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Stephanie is the author of My Fugitive, Voice of a Silent Fugitive, Heroic Lies, and Catgirl Roommate, as well as the artist behind the Undertale webcomic Just Cause.

    This blog often updates with new stories and artwork, so please keep checking in!

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Art Tips
    Behind The Scenes
    Comic Dubs
    Don't Starve
    Excerpt
    Fan Art
    Fanfiction
    Farscape
    Flash Fiction
    Humor
    Interactive
    Just Cause
    Madoka Magica
    MCU
    Music
    Music Videos
    Observations And Opinions
    Other People's Blog Posts
    Personal Stories
    Poetry
    Print On Demand
    Reviews
    Romance Writing Tips
    Special Opportunities
    Subnautica
    The Elder Scrolls
    Underfell
    Undertale Fan Art
    Updates About My Novels
    Videos
    Wakfu
    Works In Progress
    Writing Tips

    Archive

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly