Every time a horror movie watcher utters a phrase like “Don’t go in there!” or “He’s right behind you!” it’s a certainty that something truly awful is about to happen, and somebody, usually the quintessential damsel in distress, is about to let out a blood-curdling scream. The quality of that scream can be the key to just how effective and jump-inducing that scary scene can be. TakeAlfred Hitchcock’s shower sequence from the 1960 classicPsycho. AsJanet Leigh’s Marion Crane is stabbed repeatedly by the shadowed figure ofAnthony Perkins' Norman Bates in maternal drag, the knife Bates uses is never actually seen penetrating Marion’s skin. But Marion’s terrifying shrieking conveys to the audience the appalling shock and physical trauma she’s experiencing, and the ghastly sounds emanating from her diaphragm let the audience know the pain she’s feeling and the demise soon to come.
Then there’sMarilyn Burns' prolonged wailing in the final minutes ofTobe Hooper’s 1974 fright fest,The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. As Burns' character Sally runs from Leatherface and his gas-fueled mutilator, she emits a prolonged, spine-chilling howl that seems interminable, turning up the audience anxiety factor to a solid 110%.In a 2021Business Insiderinterview, scream artist (yes, that’s an actual occupation)Ashley Peldondiscussed the science of the horror movie scream and how it differs from other types of screams audiences hear on film. “Where it’s the building tension is what’s important there,” she noted. “It’s different, then, when it’s a scream of fear. That’s more of a pull-in sensation.” Getting the scream just right can make or break a tension-filled horror movie scene. The science behind the search for the perfect horror film scream is what propels the story in directorBrian de Palma’s underrated 1981 thrillerBlow Out,withJohn TravoltaandNancy Allen. Though the film is actually a tense political shocker, it delivers the best, and arguably the most heart-wrenching, horror movie-style scream in a non-horror movie.
Brian De Palma Learned From Alfred Hitchcock
It’s not surprising that de Palma would use a scream as a plot device in one of his films. As a devotee of suspense master Hitchcock, de Palma has studied how the director used a camera, a musical score, and sound effects to scare the living daylights out of moviegoers. “Hitchcock pioneered all the grammar of the suspense film form,” de Palma said in a 1984Washington Postinterview. “Hitchcock made so many movies that he really covered all the good ideas. If you work in the genre, you’re sort of compelled to use the best stuff that’s around.” Following his 1980 psychological potboilerDressed to Kill, de Palma turned to governmental intrigue withBlow Out, the story of Philadelphia low-budget movie sound engineer Jack (Travolta, in one of his best performances) who witnesses aChappaquiddick-style car accidentwhile out one night recording noises and atmosphere for B-roll use. Jack rescues one of the accident victims, sex worker Sally (Allen), and it’s not long before the pair find themselves unwittingly ensnared in an assassination plot gone awry.
Blow Outingeniously begins as a movie within a movie. For the first three and a half minutes of the film, audiences watch what appears to be a poor-qualityslasher feature, as a heavily breathing, knife-wielding maniac peers through the windows of a college sorority while scantily clad coeds dance in their skimpy lingerie and engage in various and sundry carnal activities. The killer eventually makes his way inside the sorority house, where he enters a bathroom and suddenly pulls back the curtain on a lovely showering lass, who lets out a ridiculously inept howl that sounds more like a whale’s mating call than an actual hair-raising scream of abject fear. Cut to Travolta’s Jack in the movie’s screening room, laughing at just how awful the actress' scream sounds in the movie’s rough cut. “What cat did you strangle to get that?” grouses the film’s director (Peter Boyden), who then orders Jack to find a proper scream that can be looped into the finished product. And the thrills begin.
Related:The 10 Most Iconic Movie Screams, Ranked
De Palma Brought Suspense to the Science of Sound
What’s so fascinating aboutBlow Outis de Palma’s ability to take what can be considered the rather bland and mundane science of sound and use it as a frame for a thoroughly absorbing and gripping tale of conspiracy, deceit, and dirty tricks. Jack is shown in the Philadelphia night, equipped with headphones and a narrow boom microphone that he moves slowly through the nearly-still evening air, trying to record varied ambient noises. He picks up the conversation of a distant couple who wonder why Jack is looking at them, followed by a staccato-sounding thump. De Palma pulls close focus on a bullfrog on the river’s shore, replaced shortly thereafter by the familiar sound of a hooting owl. What would normally be a dull montage instead becomes an engrossing glimpse intohow those background noises audiences hear when they’re viewing their favorite films come to be.
The serenity of the scene is shattered when the sound of screeching tires is heard in the distance. De Palma’s camera focuses on Jack’s recording equipment, with Jack’s modulometer quickly ticking upward. The camera zooms in on the boom microphone itself, then moves to Jack’s left headphone as a growing roar, something like a strong breeze, becomes louder. A sense of anxiousness pervades the moment, even though audiences are seeing only pieces of hardware. A sudden bang like a gunshot rings out, the modulometer springs to its highest level, and for the first time, de Palma’s visuals move from the tightness of the technical fixtures to the view of a car careening out of control, crashing into a wooden bridge barrier and plunging into a river.
Jack manages to rescue the passenger Sally, but the driver, the governor of Pennsylvania and a presidential hopeful, perishes in the accident. It turns out Sally was the governor’s paid companion for the evening, and the City Hall “guys in suits” do their best to keep that aspect of the incident quiet. The accident is blamed on a blown out tire on the governor’s car, but Jack the expert sound technician swears he heard a bangbeforethe blow out. Having recorded the sound of the entire crash sequence, Jack becomes obsessed with proving that someone deliberately shot the governor’s car tire, causing it to hurdle into the water. Leave it to de Palma to turn a simple search for a sound effect into an intricate political white-knuckler.
John Travolta’s Jack Finally Gets That Perfect Scream
Once the plot gets going, the concept of Jack’s search for the perfect horror movie scream seems to disappear, but de Palma maintains focus on how sound technology is the key to cracking the case. A magazine publishes a series of shot-by-shot pictures of the crash that a photographer with nefarious intentions (Dennis Franz) has captured, which Jack then splices into film format and syncs up with his sound recording, proving his theory that the car’s tire was shot out by someone hiding in the nearby brush (a subtle nod by de Palma to the famousAbraham Zapruderfilm of the JFK assassination). Meanwhile, a hired hit man named Burke (John Lithgow) is dispatched to take care of Sally, the woman who knows too much, before the real story gets out. Burke dupes Sally into believing he’s a local Philadelphia news reporter who wants to interview her about the car accident and the proof that she and Jack have about the truth behind it. Jack is suspicious, however, so for extra protection, he wires Sally for sound before her meeting to ensure her safety and to make sure he has documentation of the conversation should the reporter be up to no good.
Immediately upon Burke introducing himself to Sally, what Jack picks up on Sally’s mic convinces him she’s in danger. As Burke and Sally move through a busy Philly commuter station, Jack tries to pinpoint their location by listening to the surrounding sounds — approaching train horns, subway turnstiles, the whistling of the metal tracks. After a harrowing eight-minute sequence, Jack is finally able to locate Sally based on the booming noises from a nearby fireworks display. Sally lets out a horrifying scream, but it’s too late. She’s murdered by Burke before Jack can reach her.Blow Outends where it began, with Jack and his director in the screening room watching a cut of their slasher film. But now, the showering coed’s silly howl has been replaced by Sally’s final, tragic scream recorded by Jack. “Now that’s a scream!” the overjoyed director says to Jack. A despondent Jack mutters, “It’s a good scream. It’s a good scream.” So it was Nancy Allen’s Sally who provided the best horror movie scream that, ironically, occurred in a non-horror film. And it shook moviegoers to their cores.
A Grim Ending With an Unsettling Message
Blow Out’s shocking, grim ending was too much for audiences to handle, and the film was a rare flop for de Palma,earning just $12 million. Despite its poor box office performance,criticRoger Ebertgave it four starsand commended de Palma for his focus on the scientific aspects of filmmaking. “This movie is inhabited by a real cinematic intelligence. The audience isn’t condescended to,” Ebert wrote. “In sequences like the one in which Travolta reconstructs a film and sound record of the accident, we’re challenged and stimulated.” And in hisreview of the film,Vincent Canbyof theNew York Timesunderstood what it was all about, writing, “If you insist that the story be plausible, you’ll miss the enjoyment of the film. You’ll also miss the film’s real point, which is that recording of the perfect scream.“Blow Outoffers the most unsettling of conclusions — that the ultimate horror movie scream can only be obtained from someone who is truly experiencing the ultimate horror.
