Long before radio became mainstream entertainment, Edgar Allen Poe was already writing for the airwaves. Throughout the last decade of his life, his poetry and prose bristled with words and phrasing ...

The iconic shower scene in Psycho was originally supposed to play out without music. Instead composer Bernard Herrmann created “The Murder”: as the killing transpires, violins shriek and scream along ...

I was recently watching a scene from the 2025 film Weapons for a monograph I’m writing and noticed a familiar sound: a low, unsettling drone as a character walks down a hallway. It’s the same kind of ...

From the double-bass pulse that signals the presence of the giant shark in "Jaws," to the shrieking strings that slice along with Norman Bates' knife in "Psycho's" famous shower scene, horror films ...

This is the mecca of sound in horror films. A placid orchestra turns to dead silence right before veering into screeching violins, a death-bellow and then — the shower-drizzle. This is one of the most ...

It’s a dark and stormy night. Outside, the wind is howling. Rain is beginning to tap steadily at the window. You decide it’s the perfect setting to watch a scary movie. Armed with a bowl of popcorn, ...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — If a film is called “Jaws,” there must be just the right shark. Name it “Heist” and the robbery better be a perfect fit. The task that faced director Brendan Devane with ...

If you want to know what it sounds like to root around in someone’s chest cavity without the bloody mess, a grapefruit will do just fine. Tear, compress, and squish it in your hands. With a little ...

Researchers have shown that humans perceive approaching sounds differently than we perceive receding sounds. We overestimate how quickly the sound approaching us is moving (Neuhoff, 2001). There is ...

‘Sound Effects No. 13 – Death & Horror’ courted controversy upon its release in 1977—but despite graphic track titles like “Red Hot Poker Into Eye” and a campaign to have it banned, it became an ...