Horror movies wouldn’t be half as scary if it weren’t for the sounds and music that accompany them. The fact is that, even beyond the obvious sounds, there are infrasounds: the terrifying noise that our human nature relates to animals or other creatures in danger that for many are unbearable… but, at the same time, are practically imperceptible.
According to BBC, which reports a study conducted in 2010, scientists at the University of California discovered that many composers of horror films use “non-linear alarm sounds,” such as those used by some mammals to warn off predators. They are a kind of nature’s alarm, and that’s why they make us so nervous. Just like the string music that warns us of the presence of Norman Bates in Psycho or a dangerously approaching shark in Jaws, but in very low frequencies.
What are infrasounds?
Beyond the distressing music that we can hear are infrasounds: sound waves whose frequency is below the audible spectrum of the human ear (about 20 Hz). Many animals can pick them up, and that is why they are said to be able to “predict” natural disasters. In reality, it is because they can pick up, much better than we can, the infrasonic waves of the Earth.
In 1998, Professor Vic Tandy of Coventry University explained how these sounds can create a “haunted” atmosphere, as they can even cause a mistaken perception of movement out of the corner of your eye (as when you see something for half a second and it turns out not to be there). Infrasound not only reaches the sense of hearing but can also cause optical illusions that we mistake for ghosts.
These strange sounds are another way to terrify viewers without them realizing it (a way to add even more fear to a movie). They are almost imperceptible because they have a lower frequency, but they can provoke feelings such as anguish and sadness or a generalized uneasiness. The French film Irreversible is the clearest example of their use: certain parts of the film have infrasounds with this effect, especially in the first half, which can cause dizziness, nausea, and vertigo. When Gaspar Noé’s film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, at least 20 people required medical attention because they fainted during the screening.
Here’s an bit of the infrasounds used on the film:
Story originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
