The New Horror Jumpscare Explained

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Horror movies are slowly starting to use a new style of jump scare. It might be the thing that makes horror feel genuinely scary again, because the scariest scenes in the new horror movies aren't the ones that are just loud and just a quick jump of the monster.

[00:00:15]They're the scenes that make you sit there afterwards and think, "I didn't like that." Cory Barker recently described the bedroom scene in Obsession as what people are calling the modern jump scare, and I completely understand what he means because that scene doesn't really scare you with a loud bang, it scares you emotionally. It creates this horrible uncomfortable feeling that your body almost tries to reject because something about the scene just feels wrong, and that feeling stays with you way, way longer than just a classic jump scare. While when I do go and see a horror, some of that joy that I get from going to the cinema is that communal jump or scream or shout, whatever it be, when something crazy happens, whether that be something popping up on the screen, a loud bang that, you know, kind of breaks the tension or is the tension's climax. That is definitely a part of the horror experience, and I understand why jump scares or the classic jump scares will always be a part of horror. However, modern horror audiences and proper horror fans, they don't just want to jump anymore, and that's why the implementation of this new modern jump scare can change horror forever. I think horror movies, especially over the last couple of decades, have become way too dependent, and it's kind of just the sole goal just to get a loud bang and a scream from an audience. A couple of times in a movie, I think, is absolutely fair, and if anything, it's quite enjoyable, but when you start hammering them, and that's all you can really rely on as the climax of each scene, I find that cheap, and again, it doesn't scare me. It just kind of takes me out of it because it's more the fact that I'm in a cinema with surround sound that I'm now just waiting for a bang because it's just going to make me jump, not scared, jump. It's the classic loud sound effects, quick edits, screaming faces, that immediate release of tension. I absolutely think we're at a point now where it's safe to say that all audiences, they're expecting it, they're waiting for it. And that's why that repetitive nature of modern horror just seems to be so strong, you know, why we're going to the cinema and some of these films, most of them, just kind of feel so like same old as same as the one you just saw last time, even though the plot was slightly different. if you look at it as every horror movie is using the exact same scare structure, therefore, nothing really becomes scary anymore. You become numb to it. And like I said, you anticipate it and therefore you kind of just then reject the scare cuz you're just waiting for more so the bang. But this newer style of jump scare is so good because the scare isn't this boom, this loud explosion, a screaming face. The scare is why did that make me feel so uncomfortable? Now, that's the major difference and this involves many things such as unnatural movement, atmosphere, emotional discomfort, uncanny human behavior as they call it.

[00:03:01]A lot of people reference uncanny valley when something kind of moves a certain way. And you know, just general lingering dread. That works so much better in modern horror movies. And you know, with a film like Obsession that's just come out, it's proof of, you know, with a great director, don't get me wrong. But there are multiple scenes in Obsession where you just think, I hated what I just saw because I don't understand what I just saw. In my opinion, this is how horror's become really great again and it's kind of could be this new wave, this refreshing restart. You know, we need these brave directors where I do think it's these young up-and-coming directors that are going to break that formula and bring something completely new and whether that is from an internet trend or from this short film or something like that.

[00:03:45]I think it's what horror needs right now. We need more people going to a horror movie. And you know, the amount of times I go to a cinema, it may be different where you're from, but whenever I go to the cinema, there's always a group of people that they're just kind of giggling through the film, and it's like they're not taking it seriously because it's just crazy jump scare, back to normal, build up, crazy jump scare where, you know, how can I actually expect them to be invested in a storyline when the only payoff is just kind of a cheap jump scare that's just going to yeah, maybe make you scream or jump a little bit. I think replacing shock with discomfort is a great thing going forward in horror because as I said earlier, they're the scenes that stay in your head. You know, when you look at films like Pulse, Hereditary, Skinamarink, Cure, Lake Mungo, those films people talk about them for years and they reference scenes that there's not necessarily a crazy jump scare, but it's that feeling of just complete discomfort that stays with them for years. I genuinely think there's a chance right now for horror to just become this whole new thing where there's a real shift in what you go and see at the cinema, and I really hope so, and I hope some big production companies and directors can take this on board and, you know, create some amazing movies because the amount of movies that I've thought have an amazing plot, but they cheap they just cheapened out with it. They just threw a budget at it, got it done, and called it a day. When actually if some time had been taken with somebody that really wants to try and freak you out, the plots for those movies could have been really good. This video may have seemed like a little bit of a rant at modern horror, but also I'm just very excited from a couple of the recent films we've got and some of the new directors with the projects that they're taking on that this could be a big change for horror and one where, you know, more times than not in a year when you go to a cinema to see a horror, most of those times were really good experiences. Let me know down in the comments below what you guys think of this new kind of style of jump scare in horror, and you know, what you think the future for horror actually looks like.

[00:05:43]And yeah, I'll see you guys in the next one.