100 YEARS History of the Jumpscares
133I've been holding this one of for a while, BUT we are finally diving into the world and history of the jumpscare!!
From 1925 to 2024 how much has this well know....loved and hated technique changed in how we use it?
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Jumpscares, we've all seen them being victims to them and maybe some of us have set a jumpscare trap for someone ourselves……I know i have on this channel more than once….which reminds me welcome, from the quick and loud to the slow and spine tingling Jumpscares cemented their legacy throughout all types of media and its time we take a series look into its history and what exactly made it so infamous in the first placeThe history of the Jumpscare is one that I find personally super interesting to look into there is almost a air of annoyance of disrespect that comes from the technique seen through out horror in the last 50 plus years and understandably so, horror movies rely on the cheap trick so much that has forever damaged the image and tension of many modern horror, tho its not the rule, just a few bad eggs out there…..looking at you Conjuring franchise.
Its not only films but gaming that uses the technique and that's the part I want to take a look at with a critical lens, but first where does this modern menace come from?
Now there are 4 main figures you can point your finger to in history,1925 Phantom of the opera, 1941 Citizen Kane, 1942 the Cat people and in regards to the standards of modern horror 1976 with Carrie. Many of these were key milestones that got us to where we are, but the Jumpscare is relative to the conditioning of the audience of the times. What was scary in 1925 is now something we see every day, so don't expect to jump out of your seats just yet.
Thanks to the pewdiepie, Markiplier and Jackseptic eye, the audience experienced many of gaming then obscurer titles and Indie games through watching them being played by dedicated horror lets players, Cry of FEAR, Amnesia, RPG Maker and so many more.
The jumpscare became entirely reactionary, something that harken back to the pranking days of the screamer era, but now we had people willing to play and be scared and games adapted to this.
Slender the Eight pages was at one point one of the biggest games in the world, spawning an unseeable amount of clones and sequels and full remakes, but why did it work?
Slender needed the player to push themselves to be scared, the more pages you collect the more the tension builds with the music, and the appearances of Slenderman, with each appearance usually ending with a (scream from Pewds) this was a win win for the the Viewer and the creator, the viewer can grantee the Jumpscare while it not being predictable and the creator gets tons of views.
This was Jumpscare culture of the 2010s, I was in that bunch because who doesn't love watching people get scared. FNAF did the exact same thing, it was a game that pushed the player as time went on with the scars and Jumpscare nature of the games being the reward for making it further and also the end for those not good enough to see it until 6am.
Jumpscares in their popularity had to change with the times and it found the best way to do that was with rewarding the scars to the player, the reason the likes of the Phasmophobia or Lethal Company had done so well.
Lethal Company took the core tema work aspects and proximity chat of Phasmophobia which itself was influenced by multiplayer horror games like Friday the 13th ,dead by daylight and predator hunting grounds.
With the Ghosts of Phasmophobia AI was able to listen, watch and learn how to target the players by the rules given to the ghost, making for Jumpscares to be sudden and loud to subtle and leaving the player wanting more.
Lethal company runs on a stricter timer then Phasmophobia, giving the players 3 days to collect loot, each saying being around 10 minutes each, encouraging quick and fast action, and because of this moment to moment scares come quick too.
Running face first into a spider or having to work around the Coil Head. forcing you to look only at it and nothing else.
Lethal company uses Jumpscares lightly, and almost they are never not hilarious and addictive to comeback too.
Modern players thrive off that need to be pushed by horror, going deeper into the unknown and being punished and rewarded by the adrenaline of a good scare by choice of continuance.
Even now we see the Backrooms, Gmod chase mods or even strange NPC like characters on TicTocs are showing us a generation of jumpscares created to tease and push for scars for the player to test the limitations of horror.