I decided to revise my 12 SCARES piece for a few reasons. First, there were 9 scares, and 3 suggestions on implmention, so the title was misleading. Second, I’ve got 10x the followers looking for scary movie advice, so this felt important enough to revisit. And three, why would I stop at 12 when 13 is so much spookier?
So here’s THIRTEEN THOUGHTS ON SCARES!
The root of any horror or thriller film, outside of good characters and story, is the scare-level. Writing scares can be tricky because by and large, the concept of being terrified is subjective. Somebody might be terrified of frogs, while another person may think they are cute.
A scare, at its core, is meant to agitate some fear in your viewer’s brain. Remember that most humans (and good characters) are hard-wired to have agency and control of their lives. Any time they encounter something that reminds them they are NOT in control of the universe, it can be scary.
ONE: The basics will always work. I'm talking fear of the dark, endangerment of a pet or child, loneliness/solitude, and losing our mind/identity/sense of self. These are just hard-wired in us down to the core of our lizard brains. These can still work when presented effectively.
TWO: Violate the sacred. Most people have emotional safety net tied to a structure they revere and rely on. I'm talking: the human body, the family unit, a home, a relationship, an institution, a faith. If your character has an anchor, separate/betray them from it.
THREE: Remove stability. Slightly adjacent to the last point, it's important to create practical real-world separations too. Authority figures never believe the main character. Phones never work. Jerk men tell women they were just sleepwalking. Parents just don't understand.
FOUR: Violence. Obviously a keystone to the genre-- but depending on the type of horror film you are making, violence can be terrifying... especially if it is well-timed, gruesome, unexpected, and most of all-- EARNED.
FIVE: Jump scares. Cheap, yes. Hated by many, yes. Essential to keeping an audience on edge, 100%. They need to be well-placed, and not over-used... unless your movie is ABOUT literal jump scares and is called Hell Fest. In that case, go nuts.
SIX: Make the mundane a site of horror. If you build a scare around an everyday moment/event/place it is universally accessible, and you have good odds of it becoming memorable. Example: Psycho and taking a shower. Final Destination 2 and logging trucks.
SEVEN: Thematic-based scares. If you want to be all A24 about it, making movies about PTSD, trauma, abuse, or other real-world terrors and then hiding them inside the supernatural gives you a lot to play with. Example: Haunting of Hill House uses ghosts as an allegory for trauma.
EIGHT: Atmosphere and vibe. An extension of "afraid of the dark," always establish a look and feel that is foreboding. Remember that most people like sunshine and walls without decaying holes in them. At least a couple times per act, really lean into the setting description.
NINE: Have rules. If your antagonist is supernatural, rules keep things in line. If/when you reveal them to the audience is up to you, but YOU need to know them and DO NOT break them. If you do, even an audience that doesn't know them will feel something is off.
TEN: Let scares breathe. You want some kind of creepy/scary every 10-15 minutes in the first two acts. But it is important to let the scares settle. Think rollercoasters. Up and down. Scare, but then get the viewer calm and distracted to reset them. Humor/levity works great.
ELEVEN: Scale the scares. The size and aftermath of scares has to match where the story is. If you escalate too much early on, you have less room to be scary later. Scares start small, get big. A useful and popular cheat: act 1 dream sequences, anything goes, no consequences. This also has a psychological component, sometimes, less is more, and the reader/viewer is going to be more terrified by what they DON’T see.
TWELVE: For scares to be effective, your audience has to relate to your lead. They need to feel the lead's jeopardy as their own. Your lead has to be likable so people care, and smart, because they get one, maybe two, bad choice before the audience turns on them.
THIRTEEN: The short-cut to a franchise, or even just a memorable killer, is to give them a gimmick of some sort. It could be subtle, like a ritual they have. It could be important, maybe a very specific M.O. or weapon. Or it could be very overt, like a hockey mask and the inability to die.
Character-wise, when your lead gets scared, they're just capable enough to survive, but not so much that we won't worry about them. Without getting into the weeds of character arcs, their capability level should increase with their emotional state, and what they've learned… or conversely, make a character a complete tool so the audience is THRILLED when they buy the farm.
Finally, I’ve put this all into a sexy PDF you can download as a quick reference guide. Scare away!
Feel free to download a sexy and handy PDF version of this list below: