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The Conversation
The Conversation
Will Jeffery, Sessional Academic, Discipline of Film Studies, University of Sydney

The scariest stuff is what you can’t see: how we got the sound of horror films

Drone
Psycho (1960)

I was recently watching a scene from the 2025 film Weapons for a monograph I’m writing and noticed a familiar sound: a low, unsettling drone as a character walks down a hallway.

It’s the same kind of sound used in recent horror films such as Together (2025). You can also hear it throughout the trailer for the 2025 film Shelby Oaks, where sound throbs like an invisible threat.

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