• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why are "jump scares" considered to be cheap?

Shojx

Member
They aren't truly "scary" if they're just thrown at you randomly, without any warning.
If a game isn't capable of creating a suspenseful, unnerving atmosphere without resorting to random bursts of on-screen stimuli, then the game itself just isn't really scary.

Jump scares don't even work on me, so I hate when a game tries to make up for it's lack of ability to instill fear with cheap scare tactics.

This is why I loved the original Silent Hill games. They used the right combination of gameplay, music/sound, and environment to create an atmosphere that really got under my skin. There were times when I just had to pause and put the controller down because I was too scared to keep going. Games like those ones are where you can use "jump scares" successfully because the player is already on-edge, so they're often just enough to throw you over the top.
 
Jumpscares can be sooo goood if they are earned. I think Resident Evil 2 has the best jump scare of all time when in scenario B the Tyrant crashes through a brick wall. In the entire first game and the first playthrough of 2 all the jumpscares happen in locations that are optimal for them. Mostly rooms with windows and whatnot. The games kind of set this certain rule about different rooms. You might guess beforehand if a jumpscare might happen. Then in the second playthrough of 2 you enter the most safe feeling room in the entire game outside save points. No windows or anything suspicious about it and you have already visited the same room to do the exact same puzzle as before. And then BAM, a big motherfuckin monster just rams through the wall. Not only no enemy has done that kind of jumpscare in the games before that point, it happens in the most unexpected location possible.
 
Because what's really scary is creating an atmosphere of what you can't see, what you think you saw, or the unthinkable. A jump "scare" does a good job in startling you but that does not equal true fear. And so putting it in a game is cheap because you don't have to create the atmosphere of true fear.
Fear is something that is subjective though. For example, I found SH2 to be both cheap as well as lacking fear, though a lot of people really caught a sense of dread from it. The final section in REmake frightened me more than anything in that game. SH3 was incredibly terrifying to me(especially toward the end), and others didn't at all. I've always found Fatal Frame laughable as far as horror is concerned, but it could be a cultural difference, as that sort of look and context is steeped in Japanese lore, from what I was told. Having to divide time between gamepad and TV in Zombi U (
then having the reliance on the gamepad taken away in a few sections
) horrified me.

Just depends on the person.
 

Pimpwerx

Member
Jump scares are considered cheap in the visual medium that preceded video games, movies. They are cheap hits in movies, so by extension, they're cheap hits in games. The best scares are the psychological ones. The ones that instill the fear in you through good storytelling and compelling characters, rather than just cheap camera work and special effects. That's IMO as a horror movie buff. I was raised on slasher flicks, so I've indulged in jump scares, but they don't get my respect. PEACE.
 

anaron

Member
Haha, I love you Encephalon. I was just thinking about this reading the usual "Resident Evil was never scary!" comments that are used to frame the newer games in a better light.
 
Haha, I love you Encephalon. I was just thinking about this reading the usual "Resident Evil was never scary!" comments that are used to frame the newer games in a better light.

I hate you
for constantly reminding me of the bitter pain of knowing there won't be another season after I watch season 2 of Enlightened.
; ) ... *sobs*
 

Qassim

Member
Most of them I generally get used to straight away and then they just get annoying. The last jump scare I appreciated was Bioshock
Infinite
.
Tagging the secondary part of the title to leave it ambiguous
. It was done properly, I flung my headphones off in shock, lol.
 
I think sustained tension and a thick atmosphere is more effective and impressive than jump scares. That's why The Thing is my favorite horror movie. Having said that, good use of jump scares isn't a bad thing, it just can't be overused. Again, that's why The Thing is my favorite horror movie. When I get to the point that I can prepare for the jump scare because it's made so obvious, the game has lost me.

Basically yes, jump cares are cheap. The experience can't be all about the jump scares alone, that's boring and the longer the game goes on, the more you build up a resistance to the tactic. It has to be used sparingly.
 
People talk as if "Jump Scares" and "atmosphere, tension, build-up and psychological horror are" two entirely separate things. There's a lot of overlap between the two, but it depends wholly on how devs implement it.

I see where you are coming from. If a game is able to both create an immersive, compelling atmosphere full of dread, and then delivers a well-executed jump scare, it will be that much more powerful. But, for me, anyway, after the couple of seconds it takes for that initial scare to wear off, I still feel cheated. It still feels cheap, and I feel duped having fallen for something so cheap. Regardless of whether the execution is poor, as seems to be the norm, or well executed, you still feel cheated for having falling for something so simple.

Though, it might just be that I haven't played that many horror games. And those that I play usually don't frighten me. Might be, I'm just jaded by the whole genre.
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
Jump scares can come from anything really: A sudden loud noise like a scream, or glass shattering, etc. So I think it depends on context...

Personally, I've always thought the best jump scares are the ones that occur after a long session of making the players dread whats to come. We are expecting something to happen, but it doesn't happen when we think it will.

It kind of seems like when the game (or movie) puts us in a position where we are naturally freaking out and just waiting for the big moment, the final effect seems less cheap if it fits the circumstances. For example: If you're moving around in a dark environment, we could be scared by our own shadow because we happen to pass a window that makes our shadow look ominous, but we keep going further, waiting and anticipating for the moment the big baddy comes for us... only for it to happen when we slowly start to let our guard down and the entire time we were scared of that dark hallway when we should have been scared of that room with the delightful music.

Another would be if its really quiet in an area, but we somehow step on a pile of glass and that sudden misstep makes us jump and curse ourselves... but then we hear the same noise from somewhere else, and its close... So now we're back to square one and waiting to be attacked.

The reason why these would work is because tension has already been built and we're so busy freaking out that we don't know what to expect.

Jump scares aren't bad, but they have to be done right to not be 'cheap'.

For movies, the first thing that comes to mind is "The Strangers" and "The Descent". As for games, I think Outlast and Amnesia did a good job of it (people seem to forget these two have some intense jump scares too ).
 
I see where you are coming from. If a game is able to both create an immersive, compelling atmosphere full of dread, and then delivers a well-executed jump scare, it will be that much more powerful. But, for me, anyway, after the couple of seconds it takes for that initial scare to wear off, I still feel cheated. It still feels cheap, and I feel duped having fallen for something so cheap. Regardless of whether the execution is poor, as seems to be the norm, or well executed, you still feel cheated for having falling for something so simple.

Though, it might just be that I haven't played that many horror games. And those that I play usually don't frighten me. Might be, I'm just jaded by the whole genre.

Addressing this right now, I think the takeaway here is that if a game has something jump out at you, it should be something that stays with you. An obstacle that you have to overcome.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
A cat jumping on my coffee table is a jump scare if i'm not paying enough attention to expect it. That doesn't make my cat a master of suspense.
 

anaron

Member
I hate you
for constantly reminding me of the bitter pain of knowing there won't be another season after I watch season 2 of Enlightened.
; ) ... *sobs*
KWQMZgc.gif


Enjoy season 2! :)
 
As others have said jump scares are frequently mishandled and easy to implement. They just happen and startle you. That's it. And the worst part is that you now know it happens at that point always, so if you rewatch a movie or replay a game then you expect it to happen and it's not "scary" anymore. If you create a deeper horror experience that's more cerebral then the unease and scariness will always happen no matter how many times you play the game or watch the movie.
 

falconbox

Banned
Jump Scares are instant and fleeting. They STARTLE you temporarily and then the moment passes.

Actual Scares take time. They build tension, atmosphere, and a sense of looming dread. The experience stays with you afterwards.

It's one reason I have preferred Asian horror movies for years now over Western ones. Even when Hollywood remakes an Asian classic like Shutter or A Tale of Two Sisters, they somehow manage to remove the tension and atmosphere.
 

grimmiq

Member
For me a Horror game or movie should aim to maintain the feeling of fright or dread through both atmosphere and antagonists through an entire scene/segment and should build up, I'm fine with one or two jump scares as long as it's towards the end.

But a lot of the times when jump scares are overused I find myself smiling or laughing because I "can't believe I fell for that again", and it completely ruins any immersion.

Personally I've had only 1 game in recent memory that's actually shaken me. Metro 2033.

I played Metro 2033 a few weeks ago.I ended up doing things the stupid way having screwed up stealth repeatedly and resorted to killing everyone..Then I got to the Librarians..**** me...You're told you've got to stare them in the eyes until they lose interest and leave, if they get aggravated to back away slowly..

So I met my first one, stand my ground staring right at it, it gets close and growls so I back up, stand my ground, back up, all the way back to the wall on the opposite end of this massive room..he just didn't want to leave. I was out of room and it attacked me so a frantic fight ensued..next one I was planning on doing the same and hoping it was a bug..but I think because I shot the first the one, the SOB just charged straight at me.

Now these big bastards can jump from level to level through holes in the ceiling/floors, can barge through doors, and crash through cracked walls quite quickly..What followed was about 20mins of the scariest gaming of my life. The second to last one got away from me and jumped through the ceiling, I went into the next room and the prick smacked me from above..I climbed up and he was gone..then comes crashing through a hole in a wall, nearly kills me as I pump shotgun shells into the SOB, then runs again and drops down a level. So I go search for him, 5 rooms in and I can hear nothing but Artyom's claustrophobic breathing through his gas mask and low growls echoing around..I stop for a second, took my hands of the m+kb..they were shaking.. Never had that in a game before. Eventually found the bastard charging me in a hallway.
 

ZehDon

Member
For me, I think the "Jump Scare" was really perfected with Doom 3. The peaks and valleys in terms of scares were masterfully managed. Other games have done an admirable job since, such as Dead Space 2, but Doom 3 was really the first game that I felt made "jump scares" apart of the core experience while handling them so well. I actually love Doom 3, which I know is not the popular opinion, but I find its brand of monster-closet-simulator to be to my liking.

For me, a "cheap jump scare" is simply one that startles you. You aren't scared, you are merely surprised. A cat jumping out of a cupboard is a great example of this. A real "jump scare" is when a threat of some kind jumps out at you: you are surprised, but the fear of having to deal with the threat remains after the surprise is gone. The dogs jumping through the window in Resident Evil are a masterful example of this; its shocking, but what makes it scary is that you have to deal with the dogs.

I think "jump scares" can become cheap if they are used to frequently. As Maragidyne mentioned, it really is the expectation and build up to the jump scare that makes it work.
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
The problem is that you're assuming that the jump scare has to take place, which it absolutely doesn't. And when it does, it does not have to be a cheap scare such as a monster jumping out at you. The idea is to create the possibility of a jump scare, not the jump scare itself. You can go a long way without ever using a single jump scare, as long as you're able to establish that it is a possibility and it is absolutely something to fear.

For example: Imagine you're in an empty house. Lights flicker on and off, you investigate the house, you hear a lot of strange noises or footsteps from around the house. The game has somehow established already that you're in danger and capable of dying, you're powerless against the evil force. You're always on edge because of what might happen, but you manage to get through most of the house, except for one place...A long hall with no doors, except a bunch of stairs leading to a pitch black attic. You expect that something horrible is going to happen, you fear that something is up there and going to murder you, you feel the dread and fear build up in you with every step you take. THAT'S the greatest thing about jump scares, not the jump scares themselves, but the possibility of one. You could enter and exit the attic without anything ever happening, as the only requirement is that you never stop feeling that danger might pop up from behind every corner and that it is actually something to be feared (Something which Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs tremendously failed to do).

The key is to make the player scare him- or herself, not to scare him with jumps. Sound familiar? Exactly, it's the kind of horror everyone praises, without realizing that Jump scares can absolutely be a part of this.

And again, jump scares don't have to be monsters jumping at you screaming "ABLOOGIEBOOGIEBOO". They could be doors shutting behind you as the lights go out, a monster banging against a door you just closed (and thus the game warning you that you have to hide), a loud noise coming from right behind the door you need to get through. Jump scares are simply sudden grabs of attention that could result in people (not merely physically) jumping and can be used at many different intensities (as long as it's loud and sudden enough to make people "jump". It's not as much the monster jumping, but the player). Simplifying jump scares to loud and sudden in-your-face things is limiting the concept. People usually label this as atmospheric horror, but there is a huge overlap between "jump scares" and atmospheric tension. The modern definition of the word "Jump scares" is mainly due to the fact that most horror games only use the of monster-in-your-face kind of implementation

Even games that get lauded for their great horror, such as Amnesia (and even earlier SH to an extent), actually use quite a bit of jump scares. The key is to realize that they're a tool and must never be the focus of fear. Create fear through sound, atmosphere and gameplay, but only ever use the EXPECTATION of regular jump scares to intensify that fear and tension. Other than that, they use environmental jump scares to give context to both the world and area around them and to the atmosphere and situation at hand. The use or lack of use (and combining this with area/room design) is done to set up a mood (feeling safe in a RE save room or instead feeling immense stress or dread because an amnesia monster is suddenly banging on the door and trying to enter the room) for every given moment and this way they manage to make the players feel exactly what they want them to feel at any given time. We don't have any control over what we do or feel because of the mind games these devs play on us, which adds to the overall theme of hopelessness and despair.

Whew. Hope that my gibbering somehow makes sense.

This is exactly what I was getting at, and I'm glad you went so well into detail with it.

Great post. :3
 

Opiate

Member
It's intellectually straightforward to accomplish. It's a bit like fart jokes; it isn't that fart jokes aren't funny, it's just that literally anyone can make them. People reward cleverness.
 

Panthers

Member
Jump scares done right, in mix with the right setting and mood, are amazing. RE2 did it perfectly, especially when just strolling down a hallway you have been down a dozen times before. Then BOOOOOM, dogs or something bust in and you are forced to react quickly, assuming you havent thrown your controller. It keeps you on your toes and makes going into any room hard to do without a level of tension.
 

Voror

Member
I have a book by Stephen King where he categorizes the different types of scares one so often sees, though I can't find the section where it is discussed. I do remember that he categorized Jump Scares as something of a last thing to try if you've got nothing else and that while they are great for that initial jump they fade just as quickly.

I don't necessarily think Jump Scares are bad of course, but when a work overly relies on them I think it just starts getting old. If they are placed well and used sparingly then those jump scares can be quite effective.

The best type of scare one can do I think is the kind of dread that comes from not knowing what is out there and your imagination on what it could be does all the work, which was something that Lovecraft could often do well in his stories. In some ways though there is a risk to this as eventually there needs to be a moment where you unveil whatever it is and it so often doesn't live up to expectations.

Using a game example I think was pretty good was a part early in Dead Space where you're walking down a corridor and you suddenly see a necromorph run by. And you never see it again. I remember being freaked out wondering when the thing was going to jump out and try to kill me but it never did.

A recent movie example I can think of might be The Conjuring which does have jump scares but largely uses them well. The clapping game is a good example, but I remember the scene in the movie where my sister and I were expecting a last second scare but it just ended instead which we thought was much more effective.
 
I HATE jump scares. They've completely ruined the horror genre because now it's not Horror, it's Surprise. Being startled or surprised sucks, it feels bad, it makes you frustrated, and it makes watching movies a pain because you're constantly trying to guess where the BOO LOUD NOISE is gonna be instead of trying to get immersed in the film. It makes it an experience of sitting in a room making an enemy of the screen instead of an experience of being in a story.

On the other hand, they work a bit better in games. I think the PS1 Resident Evil games were mostly good, they make you connect more to the character you're playing as because you dont want something to jump out and kill you. The ones in Dead Space are a pain in the assignment though and ruin the game.
 

erawsd

Member
The problem is they're only effective the first time you see them.

In RE and RE2 I thought they were great at creating tension and letting the player know that you're never really safe.
 

arit

Member
I was once startled by my toaster, because I forgot about turning it on minutes before. I do not like jump scares :|

kO1E0Ja.gif
 

Ominym

Banned
Because they're extremely simple to achieve. Jumping at a sudden, violent, and unexpected event in your close proximity is a hardwired function of your brain. So tapping into an action that's essentially impossible to avoid isn't really as "scary" as it is reactionary.

Good horror comes from an actual sense of dread. Feeling as if the world around you is closing in, suffocating you. There is no release, because even as nothing happens your mind plays tricks on you attempting to preemptively guess danger. Attempting to craft an atmosphere, situation, or environment that forces your brain into that primal instinct is a true feat. And it's something that sticks with you long after the fact, in ways a simple jump scare can never accomplish.
 

sphinx

the piano man
has the scare jump in Eternal Darkness been mentioned already??

cause that's one I really liked and it was just once in the whole game and actually unexpected.
 
It feels like many are comparing well crafted atmosphere to bad jump scares. The same type of conclusion could be had from comparing well managed, timed, and executed jump scares to horror games that fail at creating a genuine atmosphere. Gotta compare well executed, vs well executed.
 

sn00zer

Member
Resident Evil is fun, but the horror doesnt stick....Silent Hill is a sticky mass that attaches and feeds off of you...you try and scrub it off, but there will always be a spot left festering, waiting to grow
 

The M.O.B

Member
The most effective jump scare?

Random objects in the environment making obnoxiously loud sounds when you touch them

I'm looking at your F.E.A.R
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
The best jump scare ive ever experienced in a game was in Scratches. Best use of one in anything ive played or watched.
 

anaron

Member
So many people are responding purely to the idea of "jump scares" and not how whether they are or aren't effectively implemented in certain games.

What Encephalon is proposing is how for example, the Resident Evil series plays with an already tense and unsettling atmosphere and by being a videogame, allows "jump scares" to take on a role of directly affecting the player. It plays with the expectation of the surrounding and doesn't allow for any sort of lasting comfort because of it.

by forcing the player to consider all of their options every where they go be it your item management, health, ammunition, backtracking, etc, it all forms together and contributes to a larger atmosphere of dread therefore making the gaming experience frightening.
 

Rhysser

Banned
Being startled and being afraid are two totally different experiences that people often confuse as being the same because both can cause similar behavior. I don't mind if there's something unexpected that jumps out at me after an atmosphere of terror has been established, but if I'm running down an otherwise normal hallway and something jumps through the window with a loud noise, I might jump but I'm not afraid, and I don't enjoy the experience either. I consider it cheap because whoever made it is not actually making me feel afraid, they are just surprising me, which is much easier to do. Being afraid lasts much longer and is much more oppressive, it's an experience of desperation that builds up as it pushes you into a corner, and you may only jump and make noises once you feel like your corner has run out of room - otherwise you stay quiet and keep slowly moving backward.
 

KiraXD

Member
jumps scares CAN be good imo.

If a game can bring the atmosphere, being really creeped out throughout the game... sometimes the fear of a jumpscare can be equally frightening as the jumpscare itself.

If im walking around an empty street at night during a rainstorm, the longer i stray from the main road, the longer i go without a scare, tension starts building up, i know a jump scare is around the corner... and that frightens me... the i start anticipating them in all the wrong areas... and when it comes (even though I KNEW IT WAS COMING) and it still manages to scare me... then thats cool.

Im easily scared though too... i have a crazy imagination even at the age of 32 lmao... if i wake up at night in my house because i heard a noise outside... i can genuinely freak myself out over it... serial killer under the bed... crazy monster in the shadows...

Dead Space 1 was too scary for me to even play at night sometimes lol.
 
Depends on how it's done. If you build an atmosphere for it to make you feel like something could jump at you at any time - and use it sparingly - it's cool every now and then, but randomly going OOGABOOGA on me every five seconds like I'm in some cheap theme park ride gets tiring really fast.
 

jaaz

Member
I blame bad horror movies for the profileration of jump scares in horror games. For example, this classic jump scare which I am sure has a name: It goes like this: "I think I heard a noise there, let me go check it out. Oh, it's nothing, but the minute I turn around someone or something is going to jump in my face. Sometimes it's the monster but most times it's that friend of mine that we haven't seen in a while. This is sometimes followed by the real monster showing up. So you get, tension--startled--relief--let your guard down--startled--and hopefully terror."

I can see these coming a mile away and they never scare me. Most of them are just a cheap trick, takes no talent whatsoever. But I agree that when combined with good atmosphere, jump scares can be effective.

As others said, atmosphere had to be created and that takes talent. And yes it is somewhat subjective, but it does have wide appeal. For example, for me a good horror game combines dread, despair and desperation with decaying, dangerous and/or captive "no way out" environments. This had led me to be scared in games that one wouldn't necessary equate as horror games. Some of the games that have combined these elements and really scared me were:

Demons Souls
Portal
Amnesia
Sanitarium
Silent Hill 2 and 3

Kudos to Silent Hill 2 because it combined all of the above with a real life terrifying situation. As any good horror writer will tell you, real life is often scarier than anything you can make up.
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Though it's most well known for its 'jump scares' I think the limited ammunition in classic RE titles caused more dread and fear than anything else I've played.

The first time I played RE2 I kept saying "I don't know what to do if a zombie is in front of the door I need to go through cause I can't put it down."
 
The sense of dread Nemesis creates is a different thing. As you said, he can jump at you at any moment but the game conditions you to remember he's a very real threat, that he can come out unexpectedly and the anticipation makes the experience much scarier. He basically creates chaos in a somewhat controlled environment where you get used to the zombies but this guy's just a wild card.

I wanted to go back to this post because of the "wild card" element it brings up. Many people in here are expressing that surprise is a separate element from fear, but is that really the case? An element of surprise or unpredictability to a scenario should undermine a sense of security that a player has. If the jump scare transcends beyond the moment when it's introduced (for example, having to deal with running from Nemesis, him following you around beyond the room when the player encounters him), then can't the jump scare be used in a clever and deliberate way to reinforce the sense of danger?

Chipping away at a player's sense of security strikes me as something that is integral to the horror genre. Games like Siren and Silent Hill are able to do this with slow, but dangerous enemies (particularly true in Siren) up against weak, sluggish characters. Even when you know they're coming, you may have to encounter them to grope our way through the games and they can create an incredible sense of dread. Although Resident Evil is inundated with slow moving zombies (which are mostly there to trigger internal conflict over resources), it tends to have much faster moving enemies than the former which can also jump out at you at any time. I had been thinking of these as separate elements, but perhaps they're two sides of the same coin.

So many people are responding purely to the idea of "jump scares" and not how whether they are or aren't effectively implemented in certain games.

What Encephalon is proposing is how for example, the Resident Evil series plays with an already tense and unsettling atmosphere and by being a videogame, allows "jump scares" to take on a role of directly affecting the player. It plays with the expectation of the surrounding and doesn't allow for any sort of lasting comfort because of it.

by forcing the player to consider all of their options every where they go be it your item management, health, ammunition, backtracking, etc, it all forms together and contributes to a larger atmosphere of dread therefore making the gaming experience frightening.

Part of me wonders if they can't be seen as "delivery" upon the unspoken promise that something could be out there ready to lunge at you. So, why not have it lunge at you? I have hard time seeing them as "cheap" if they're cogs in a larger horror atmosphere machine, like you've concisely outlined here.
 
Top Bottom