Insidious Suspense

                I’m continuing this week’s “theme” today with talking about suspense in Insidious: Chapter 2. Like all good horror/ thriller films they accomplish putting you on edge by using music. Yes, music. All movies use it. The kind of music used depends on the genre of film you are watching. If you are watching an action film the faster the music, the more is happening during the scene. For instance, if there is a chase, there will tend to be very fast music playing because it goes along with the heartbeat of the people in the scene at that time. In horror films you are supposed to feel very on edge, especially right before something “scary” happens.

                Time to expand on horror films… If they use this technique well, and the scene goes along with the music playing, you should feel your heartbeat start to go faster and you should feel the sense of being scared for the people in the film. How does that happen? It’s confusing like most other things in anatomy. It has to do with the chemical reactions your brain has to things your senses collect. Normally when something considered scary is about to happen the music will start off very slow and it will build to something more upbeat and fast. A short time after the music gets to the fastest you will hear in that scene or bit, there tends to be something that appears or “jumps” in a sense. That is the part you are supposed to be scared of. In Insidious: Chapter 2 an example of this starts right at the title as it does in the first film. They start with a slow violin type music and then build up to a fast moving music that leads to a shrieking sound that happens very fast. Soon after that starts to really pick up, you are “hit” with the title and it pops up out of nowhere. That is a part where you are supposed to jump at.

                Will you be scared every single time? No, probably not. But the idea of using a heartbeat for the beat of the music and making it change dramatically is supposed to start making your heartbeat do the same thing and eventually make you scared to some extent. If they used the same technique as an action film and just started off with some fast music, the outcome would not be the same.

Dramatic exit– Director J