Picture this, you are watching a scary movie and all of a sudden in your mind you ask yourself, why am I getting scared at something that is not real? The reason people get scared is a little different depending on the person, so how do film studios make films designed for scaring? The answer to this question involves how people think, and how various people will react to different things.

One of the easiest ways that filmmakers will try to scare their audiences is by making a villain that the audience does not know anything about. Think about it, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees are two of the most iconic movie antagonists and we never end up seeing their faces. They stay in the shadows and wait. For most of the movies, we have no idea why they do what they do until the end. The fact that we do not know anything about the villains is inherently scary. Another thing that people will use to scare you is physical harm. The reason why you will see fake blood in most scary things is because when we see blood, we think of harm. And nobody likes harm. People will also try to use music to scare you. The way this works is that our minds like patterns, so when something defines patterns, it is perceived as scary. When you hear something go into a minor key, you are unfamiliar with it because it does not fit the pattern you make in your head. This causes our mind to feel fear. When a piece of music in a film cuts off right before the scare, the mind thinks the music should keep going. When it does not, it is naturally off-putting.

Now that you know the techniques people use to scare you, see if you can spot them in your favorite movies and books.