Sound in Horror Films

Music and sound effects in horror films are used to heighten the tense and frightening atmosphere. Without music and sound effects, the film would not be as scary. After a period of silence a load noise is used in order to make us jump.
Music:
Music is vital in a horror film as it creates a specific mood to the scene. If music is used effectively, it will help promote even more emotions to the audience, making them feel scared or tense. Although there are a lot of diverse range in the music that has been used throughout different horror films, some of these conventions include:
Isolated Instruments: which are often used just before a key event occurs, which helps link the idea of vulnerability to the audience.
Long Suspenseful Notes: these often help contrast with short sharp notes to help scare or shock the audience.
Extreme but Intentional Changes of Pitch Tones: is used to make the audience feel immediately tense or on edge.

In this clip from Jaws, the music instantly makes us feel on edge. The extreme but intentional changes of pitch tones make us instantly feel on edge. There are also long suspenseful notes which shock the audience as they contrast so hugely to the previous track. 

Voices:

Voices in horror films are extremely important, as they must reflect fear, tension and panic. If the voice does not inflict fear, it will lessen the scariness of the film. An example of this is in the film Scream. His tone of voice is extremely well suited to this part, as it effectively creates fear and tension because it is distinctive and stands out. His voice also creates an immediate sense of fear, intimidation and power because it has a strong deep tone with a husky filter to it. 

Sound Effects: 

There are lots of sound effects which can occur in a horror film soundtrack, which could include: 

Classic: there are lots of sounds that have horror type connotations which help make them recognisable and iconic to the audience such as- Bats, Owls and Witches. 

Echoed Voices: this helps to heighten the audiences mood, sense and emotion towards the film which can give quite a ghosty feel. 

Main Brief:
For our main brief, Chelsea and I have decided to use a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound effects, this is in order to maintain the high tension of our opening. We want to keep the tension consistently high, so we have used background music, as well as foley sound effects such as the rustling sounds of the killer, non- a non-diegetic heartbeat and sinister background music, but also keep the film as realistic as possible with natural footsteps and the breathing of the character.

Chelsea and I are well aware that there are a lot of sound effects and background on music is copyrighted by the owners. Therefore, we have decided to research different websites which has copyright sound; audio jungle, premium beat and beatsuite.