Day 161 - Jumpscare
SPOOKY MONTH!, Horror, WTF ·
Skeeter’s Take:
Boo!
Did I scare you?
Did I JUMPscare you?
Look, I’m not original and far from alone in not liking the titular “Jumpscare”. For those of you not familiar with the idea of a jumpscare - have you ever been to a haunted house? You know how all the actors will hide in places throughout the haunt and jump out to try to surprise you in an attempt to trick you into thinking you are scared? They will use all sorts of tricks by dressing the setting, wearing a costume, and yelling loud. You might initially be surprised, maybe frightened for a slight moment, until your brain kicks back on and you realize “oh yeah, that’s a costume. That’s just some dude yelling at me”. This works fine for a haunted house. In fact, I would argue part of the appeal of a haunted house is buying into the “theater” of it. But I don’t think this is as effective in something more immersive like a movie or game.
For things like movies and games, I am almost always angry at being jumpscared. When it’s something that’s supposed to be more atmospheric and tries to bring the viewer/player into the world, a jumpscare almost immediately takes me out of it.
Most of them have the same build up - Scene slows down for a second as the character tip-toes closer to a dark hallway, or a cracked door. The music will die off, or slowly dwindle to create a fake sense of tension. In a split second, right as the pretend tension couldn’t possibly get any greater, something will jump out at the main character. It could be a cat, it could be a monster, it could be the main character’s kid. It doesn’t matter. What the subject of the jumpscare is, never matters. What matters is something jumps out and the music will play loud violin stings and the main character will shriek and you as the viewer will most likely roll your eyes.
To me, a jumpscare feels like a cheap trick. It feels like I’m at one of those Turkish Ice Cream street vendors and the ice cream is all the things I love with horror (the themes, atmosphere, etc.) and the developer/director is the vendor spinning those things around my head while trying to force feed me a jumpscare. I feel like they are cooing at me, “Ooooh, you like that? Aren’t you so scared? I bet your heart rate went up, didn’t it?” and then they toss the ice cream on the ground when they are done and ask me for a tip.
That’s not to say every horror movie has to be some deep and miserable experience. I love movies like Drag Me to Hell that lean into camp and comedy more than misery (and that movie is chocked full of cheap jumpscares and I think it’s intentional).
Hell, there are even some good jumpscares that have been used effectively - for some reason this scene from Jurassic Park comes to mind:
Look at the tension that’s already present in the scene. That was set up over the course of the movie and shit is currently hitting the fan. In the middle of this chaos, we get a misdirection with the severed arm (which is a light jumpscare in itself), straight into a jumpscare from a raptor that is similar to what we would see in a horror movie. The difference in this scene to something like a schlocky horror movie is the horror movie almost demands your attention for the jumpscare. They purposefully slow the movie down to a crawl, reduce the amount of noise and distraction and visual stimulus in an attempt to get the viewer to focus in on what they are determined to show you - the jumpscare. Once they have reeled your attention in, they open the Salted Nuts Snake Spring can and shove it towards your face. “See? You jumped! You were scared!” - No asshole, I just had snakes shot at my face out of a mixed nut can. Not only am I annoyed, I’m also without the promised mixed nuts.
The Jurassic Park scene doesn’t do anything of this. They trust that the viewer is invested. The start the scene at 90% and just keep cranking the dial for each new surprise they throw in the scene - first the arm (95%) then the raptor on the other side of the fence (100%). This chaos compounds on itself and creates a genuinely disturbing experience.
The other thing a Jumpscare normally does is take away the tension that was built. Part of the reason a jumpscare “works” is due to the forced tension normally placed before them. For me, a good horror movie can build an underlying tension and hold that for the duration of the film. A bad jumpscare can build tension, and then suck it out of the movie by having the jumpscare be a sort of release of that tension. We finally had the “scary” part! We can relax a little!
That’s not to say all jumpscares are bad or that there aren’t good jumpscares at all. Hell, the first Friday the 13th ends with a jumpscare and it’s one of my favorite endings to a slasher film.
Just as the movie is winding down to its conclusion and the police are pulling up on the survivor of the horrors that happened at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason Vorhees (the lost drowned boy who was the catalyst to the events of the movie) shoots out of the water behind the boat. He’s disfigured and partially decomposed. He emerges out of the water, grabs the young survivor on the boat and drags her into the lake as the helpless cops watch on in horror. This is a true jumpscare, but it elevates the rest of the lore of the film and serves for a great misdirection and cliff hanger. Here we are, expecting the movie to wrap up with a seemingly happy ending for our sole survivor - then BAM! This fabled missing dead child jumps out of the water confirming the local legend teased the whole movie as well as crushing any hopes of escape.
I can get behind a good jumpscare, it’s just the majority of jumpscares I feel are bad and are over/misused.
Which brings me to today’s game - Jumpscare.
Jumpscare has one of the worst jumpscares ever.
You start by staring blankly through a wooden wall. There is a zombie in a wooden chair. He gets up out of his seat and walks out of view:
You are presented with a volume slider for loud sounds - a decent idea for a game named “jumpscare” as I can turn the volume all the way down and see if the visuals can stand without the “oopmh” of the music stings behind them.
Then, out of nowhere - AHH!
A Jumpscare! A second volume slider - this one for quiet sounds! I had never seen anything like this before, and furthermore it came out of nowhere! AHH!
Jumpscare decided to hold the tension here. Right at the heat of the jumpscare, it just persisted. No matter how many times I pressed “Enter” or clicked on “Enter”, I could not progress!
I’m right spooked.
Recommend: NO
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 3 minutes
Sam’s Take:
Skeeter’s ability to write a thousand words and make me link 4 videos for a game we couldn’t play is mesmerizing and upsetting.
Recommend: No
Replay Percentage Chance: No
Time Played: No
HOLY SHIT WE ARE DUMB Take:
Skeeter and I are typing on the same Google Doc at the same time. Turns out all you have to do is adjust the slider until you hear the whispers, like the game says. Only, you cannot hear the whispers - the slider will stop just before max volume and:
The whispers. They do not exist. Only Zombie Jumpscare exists. He’s right, everything he’s saying is right. What’s better than one zombie jumpscare?
IT’S TWO OF EM! HE’S GUNNA SAY IT’S TWO OF EM!
WRONG I WAS GOING TO SAY ZERO - ZERO ZOMBIE JUMPSCARES ARE BETTER THAN ONE!!!!!
It’s crazy this doesn’t make the game any better.
HEY SKEETER! TIC-TAC-TOE RIGHT NOW LET’S GO
King me
Wait I can’t do this. You win.
You can do this, you just have to believe! We played a fake UI adjusting game that fit two zombie jumpscares back to back in it - anything is possible!
I know, we can play telephone. I’ll start with a word and you pass the word to me and then I’ll have to say it and by the end it won’t even mean anything anymore or be the same word lol so funny
| a b c | 1 - | - | - _____ | _____ | _____ | 2 - | - | - _____ | _____ | _____ | 3 - | - | - |
I tried copying something off the internet but that didn’t work.
That’s a pretty good idea skeeter
WAIT
- | - | -
- | - | -
- | - | -
OH YOU MADE A CHART
That’s way better let’s use that. I’m os (linux or windows?)
o x o (SE)X X o x o TIE
WOW A TIE WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED.
LMAO
Anyway, that’s the review.
Thanks for coming to Ted talks. Tune in next week to hear Ted talk more.
Ima be real, I don’t know if I can copy a chart into vs code for the website. We will see.
Shut up bozo, CURSE OF RA 𓀀 𓀁 𓀂 𓀃 𓀄 𓀅 𓀆 𓀇 𓀈 𓀉 𓀊 𓀋 𓀌 𓀍 𓀎 𓀏 𓀐 𓀑 𓀒 𓀓 𓀔 𓀕 𓀖 𓀗 𓀘 𓀙 𓀚 𓀛 𓀜 𓀝 𓀞 𓀟 𓀠 𓀡 𓀢 𓀣 𓀤 𓀥 𓀦 𓀧 𓀨 𓀩 𓀪 𓀫 𓀬 𓀭 𓀲 𓀳 𓀴 𓀵 𓀶 𓀷 𓀸 𓀹 𓀺 𓀻 𓀼 𓀽 𓀾 𓀿 𓁀 𓁁 𓁂 𓁃 𓁄 𓁅 𓁆 𓁇 𓁈 𓁉 𓁊 𓁋 𓁍 𓁎 𓁏 𓁐 𓁑
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