While visuals may draw audiences into a horror film, it is sound design that truly makes them afraid to look away.

In horror films, filmmakers utilize the basic target of fear and psychology to create a thrilling experience for their viewers. Whether it’s eerie music, squeaky noises, or even an uncomfortable and unpredictable silence, these sounds manipulate the audience’s emotions, and amplify their sense of anxiety on screen.

Sound is not only a crucial tool for storytelling, but it also amplifies emotional impact, and makes a film more realistic and immersive. With sound design, a filmmaker can easily create a line of tension, overturn expectations, or add suspense to a psychological atmosphere.

Popular examples/movies like this include The Shining, with ambient noise and unsettling compositions, A Quiet Place, with silence and sudden loud noises, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, with its iconic chainsaw sounds.

Without these effects, any film, especially in the horror genre, can be boring and unintriguing interest-wise.

“Sound has, in my opinion, the biggest part to play in creating tension and scares. As an exercise, if you ever watch a horror film on mute you’ll instantly see it’s not anywhere near as frightening. For me, the best tension is crafted using sounds or tones with no fixed pitch,” said sound designer, James Utting.

In productions, certain sounds are chosen to align with the psychological aspects of what the designer wants to achieve. 

For instance, common triggers like this can cause low frequencies for physical unease, silence to build tension, sudden changes to cause a jump scare, or even harsh tones that imitate human distress sounds.

Besides the fact that sound can make a piece of media significantly more entertaining, it has also controls what we feel before we realize it. Our ears can detect things faster than our eyes do, making it a huge ally to filmmakers when igniting fear.

“If you hear a familiar, dangerous sound, your amygdala immediately sends emergency signals to make you react before other areas of the brain process what the sound was. That’s why sudden loud sounds can cause the acoustic startle reflex, which makes you jump or flinch,” said Cleveland Clinic.

Feelings such as rapid heartbeats, sweating, and chills are common reactions to sound designs like this, which is why horror films specifically use it to create an unsettling experience.

Because of its powerful psychological and physical impact, sound design has become one of the most intentional and crafted elements in modern horror. Every noise, loud or silent, serves a purpose. Its influence reaches beyond individual films, but has overall shaped how audiences experience cinema itself.

“I think a lot of well-produced horror comes from sound design, or more specifically, purposeful sound design whether that is the sound effects or music itself or honestly even silence,” said film studies teacher, Kaitlin Naccarato.

Now when thinking about movies in general, sound design has always been a key factor since the beginning. And with the modern innovations of the 21st century, technology has made a big jump for the horror department.

Features such as surround sound, digital layering and distortion, or even immersive theater systems have kicked this genre of movies to another level of fear and experience. It can lift emotion, create suspense, or distort reality. 

And as skills and storytelling continue to progress, sound design will keep being the invisible force that highlights horror. 

It’s what makes a quiet hallway into a nightmare, a whisper into a chill, and silence into something that adds a beat to your heart.