Deconstruction- contrasting psychological horror non-diegetic music

Contrasting non-diegetic soundtracks-

 

Different films can use different types of music soundtracks yet create the same 'thrilling' effect. Firstly, I looked at Insidious 3 and how it used the song 'Tiptoe through the tulips'.

In Insidious, in particular scenes the song 'Tiptoe through the tulips' is used in a reoccurring manner and triggers scenes that are particularly horrifying. 

The song almost mocks the victims of the torture, however the tone of the song still scares the audience as it makes them aware that more horror is to come. The fact that the song is so upbeat and should be a happy song uses contrasting effects to make the scene still seem scary and tense, but also brings a degree of humour into it. 

In this scene, the father has come to get the young boy out of the nightmare land, and when doing so, the song plays which makes the characters both on edge as they know some means of torture is amongst them. The scene then cross-cuts to the demon that's torturing them sharpening it's nails.

The second film I used to contrast with Insidious is a film called 'Hell Night' in 1981. This scene uses a very generic and typical sound of suspense, which is elongated and long-held low and high pitched notes. Usually this kind of sound effect is used when showing dark and mysterious scenery and at the end of the sound, some kind of jump or scare usually occurs. 

Only the section 00.14 - 00.40 is relevant in the video clip.

 

It makes the scene appear very tense and serious, which is very different to 'Tiptoe through the tulips', however they both trigger a sense of fear and a sense of expecting the unexpected. When a diegetic soundtrack is used in any kind of horrors, but especially psychological horrors, it most probably will end in a jump, which the audience are expecting. However the audience will not know what or when that jump will be, which is mainly caused through the music and the suspending effect is creates.

 

Evaluation-

The fact that both of these films can gain the same effect in two very different ways shows that creating suspense and an eerie atmosphere can be done in more than one way. Both ways made the viewer tense and made them have to anticipate whatever was to come in the next few seconds.