The Startle Effect: Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory Author(S): Robert Baird Source: Film Quarterly, Vol

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The Startle Effect: Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory Author(s): Robert Baird Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Spring, 2000), pp. 12-24 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1213732 . Accessed: 17/12/2013 11:10

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This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Robert Baird

The Startle Effect

Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory

Lewton particularlyenjoyed devising moments in his films which would cause audiences to gasp in terror. His name for these moments of sudden shock was "busses."The term derives from the Central Park sequence of Cat People. -Joel E.Siegel, ValLewton: The Realityof Terror

Gasping in terror: Alien

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions y wife is often startled when the phone rings. through a shattered boat hull; we can inspect the in- The phone doesn't bother the kids or me, but all famous startle in Wait Until Dark (1967) when Alan of us have, at one time or another, found ourselves Arkin's psychotic killer (supposedly incapacitated) alone in a room only to turn and be startled by some- leaps, Olympic-like, after Audrey Hepburn's blind one hovering behind us. My son Sean, like most re- housewife. My study of over 100 American horror and spectable eight-year-olds, can, to his great pleasure, thriller films from the early 30s to the present reveals startle his older sister. There are rarer and stranger formal refinements and increased usage of this effect. startles. Once, walking across a parking lot in the For instance, 1942's Cat People deploys two startle middle of the day, I was startled by what turned out to effects, while Paul Schrader's 1982 remake offers be a leaf. It wasn't a dangerous leaf, but, pushed by eight, a typical example of the hypersensationaliza- the wind, it made an uncanny scuttling sound behind tion of the post-Psycho horror/thriller film. me. The sound was odd enough and "out of place" David J. Skal, echoing others, claims that the birth enough to startle me. Garden-variety startles provide of cinema itself was an occasion for audience startles: an affective punctuation to various folk entertainments In America, more direct and visceral means such as hide-and-seek, surprise parties, spook houses. were favored to hold and startle an audience- One confidante tells me that upon leaving Madame locomotives toward the for in- Tussaud's in London she once saw visitors who were hurtling screen, stance, or a bandit firing his gun directly into startled by a motionless "wax figure" that suddenly the camera's eye (both effects were employed moved: all a bit of fun orchestrated by the manage- in 1903 by Edwin S. Porter in The Great Train ment. More typically, I once saw a horror film with Robbery). Quaint though these techniques may a friend who was startled so frequently and forcefully seem today, they once had the power to make that I worried he would pull a muscle. Since, at the audience members faint.3 time, I was writing a dissertation on cognition and the horror film, I did not let these and other startles pass, Examples such as these serve as apocryphal encapsu- but considered how a leaf, or a phone, or a film can lations of the birth of cinematic sensationalism, and, startle us, and whether the mere fact of startles and/or according to David Bartholomew, share something with a theory of their function might add to or challenge horror: current thinking about the mind and its relation to real Its origin [horror], indeed, is the of all and virtual space. origin moving pictures, going right back to the Lu- Many laymen and not a few philosophers and psy- miere brothers' 1895 exhibition of A Train En- chologists have been content to relegate startle to the tering a Station, a short category of dumb reflex, little more dynamic than a documentary sequence to which early audiences reacted with a sneeze or a knee jerk. That film startles occur only dur- frenzy, ducking from the onrush- ing a particular scene type should alert us that some- away seemingly ing train on the screen and the audi- thing complicated and odd is occurring. Indeed, I believe fleeing torium in fear. Of the Lumieres' film startles reveal the fundamental characteristics of course, little film was not a horror film as we've come to cinema spectatorship, offering the most pointed op- know it, but it provoked fear and portunity for addressing and explaining the age-old psychological unease in its audiences (who had not paradox that fictions and representational spaces can yet learned how to "look" at movies), and that stimulate intense emotional responses in spite of an is how the horror film has awareness of fictionality.2 precisely always functioned historically.4 Millions have been startled while watching threatening film scenes. We can pinpoint the frames in Cat These familiar stories of early spectator naivete seem where one of People (1942) film's first startles-a always to imply that more modem, media-savvy view- bus of public all things-bursts into frame; we can ers can resist manipulation. No one today, after all, runs study the exact moment in Jaws (1975) when Hooper, from or faints before hurtling movie trains, or flinches while scuba diving, is startled by a corpse popping from camera-directed gunplay. However, viewers, even

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions filmmakers and media critics, can still be startled by What then conjures up a memory of the sleep- film. The origin of this still viable startle effect is rec- less torment of an earlier evening? The noises ognized as 1942, in the famous bus scene from Val Lew- chiefly ... the noises are quite the sole con- ton and Jacques Tourneur's B-movie surprise success, tribution to alarm. If only you shout loudly Cat People, where Alice (Jane Randolph), being fol- or strangely enough, and if only you can con- lowed by something from screen left, is surprised by a trive to make the sound unexpected, somebody bus barreling in from screen right. Dennis Fischer of- is sure to be terrified. In that respect, at least, fers a typical analysis of Cat People's startle effect: this piece displays a sure sense of the theater. "This type of scene with a slow buildup and sudden re- There is very little of Bram Stoker in it. But lease became known as a 'bus,' and was a component most of us jumped in our seats at least once in many horror films thereafter. The idea was to get the in every act.6 audience to expect something and then catch them to- Meanwhile, back in the colonies, the American pro- tally off guard from another direction."5 duction of Dracula was touring to great success and Ironically, the first horror and thriller films of the likewise suffering criticism for its sensationalism-this sound era, a ten before Lewton, did not good years fully from the New YorkMirror: exploit the startle effect. The massively popular Drac- ula (1931) offers no end of Gothic mise-en-scene. The To many the eerie horrors of this shocker sug- Count glides about, a highly visible, stately menace, gested but the impotent boos of a child dressed never once making a startling move or entrance. This is in a bedsheet. One jumps instinctively because a bit odd, for we know that the theater made use of the of the noise and clamor of the procedure, but startle response in earlier outings. A 1927 review from there is still a deep set realization of the juve- the Times on the opening of Dracula in London's Lit- nility and fallaciousness of the youngster's tle Theater suggests just how sensational the play was: prank.7

Cat People

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Like later deprecations of film startles, theater critics The traditional view is that startle represents the made it quite clear that startles were, in some man- most extreme form of sensationalism, a stark contrast ner, antithetical to art and culture. Yet startles, surely, with the ideals of art and thought. Here is Stanley J. whether theatrical or cinematic, are not without virtue. Solomon: Their widespread use in the Gothic tradition suggests Shock all too frequently springs from some value, if not for critics, then at least for artists merely surprise, generated equally by a murdererleap- and patrons. In this vein, the two Dracula stage plays ing from a dark alley with knife in hand, and didn't just resort to an occasional startle-they sys- a child jumping from behind a wall and yelling tematically deployed them-and with apparent glee. "Boo." . . . The horror film, then, cannot be Skal's annotated edition of the two major productions judged on its surprises unless the surprises are of the Dracula stage play include numerous stage di- integrated into a meaningful pattern of horror. rections that imply potential startle effects (12 for the ... Sheer sensationalism, the standby ingredi- English play; 16 for the American). Startling sounds ent of the genre, is of course merely an avoid- included a number of offscreen bursts: gunshots, ter- ance of art and thought."l rified screams, wolf-like howls, the pounding on and tearing down of doors, and "maniacal laughs" from The contempt and neglect of startle has hidden some- Renfield. Rapid visual movement was achieved through thing potentially profound. A bus arrives in Cat Peo- quick entrances, flashpots, and trap doors. ple and viewers are startled; a bus arrives in The Relative to theater, then, Hollywood was atypically Graduate (1967) and viewers smile. slow in developing the sensational potential of the startle effect, but, of course, theater had centuries of practice to draw from. Unlike the theatrical startle (where The Threat Scene and the Formal sheer loudness can function much as it does in real Conventions of the Startle Effect space), the modem film-based startle relies heavily on precise manipulations of editing and camera position, neither of which are available to the stage play. The The core elements of a film startle effect are (1) a char- simple historical lesson is that, ironically, the startle ef- acter presence, (2) an implied offscreen threat, and (3) fect was not fully exploited in cinema until a decade a disturbing intrusion into the character's immediate after horror's "first wave," and then by Val Lewton, a space. This is the essential formula (character, implied producer frequently cited as the most literary and cul- threat, intrusion) one finds repeated hundreds and thou- tured director ever to work in horror. Lewton included sands of times since Lewton's first bus effect.'2 Lack- and modified startle effects in all nine of his horror ing character, threat, or intrusion, the possibility of films, regardless of who was in the director's chair: startle appears negligible. Mark Jacques Toureur, Robson, Robert Wise.8 Lew- It is informative to reflect on films that should gen- ton's sensational effects were soon copied by other erate startles but that don't. In one category we have filmmakers. An extended set piece from Lewton's The loud, violent, and frightening films like those from Seventh Victim (1943), which contains five startle ef- Quentin Tarantino. For all their mayhem, Reservoir fects within a few so minutes, impressed Carol Reed Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994) do not typically that he it for The Third adapted Man (1949).9 Appar- lead to startles, probably because offscreen space is not Lewton's bus was worth ently repeating, and, like cer- sufficiently evoked. A second relevant category of films tain magic tricks, became an audience favorite.10 are those that mount what I call "mock threat scenes," as mindless and a hallmark of Maligned B-movies where the viewer watches a character teasingly feign and the exploitation fare, film-based startle effect can a startle or attempt to startle a nearby character, as in be found in all actually manner of horror and thriller Jurassic Park, when Dr. Grant (Sam Neil) horrifies the films, from blockbusters like Rosemary's Baby (1968), young children he is shepherding through the park by The Exorcist (1973), Jaws, Jurassic Park (1993), and pretending to be shocked by a massive electrified fence. Day to thrillers Independence (1996) like Jennifer 8 In an earlier mock startle from The Haunting (1963), (1992), The Client and Blink (1994), (1994). The effect Luke (Russ Tamblyn) annoys his fellow paranormal can also work on the television screen, in made-for-TV investigators during a spooky lull inside the old Hill films such as Salem's Lot and in series (1979), such as House by leaping, yelping in pain, and claiming a statue "The Stalker" Night (ABC, 1974-75), "Tales from the stepped on his foot. Both films, of course, are notori- Crypt" (HBO, 1989), and "The X-Files" (Fox, 1993-). ous for startle effects that do work. Then there are

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions parodic threat scenes/startle effects, as in Carl Reiner's quickly down a hall, her flame-thrower covering her Fatal Instinct (1993), a parody of classic film noir and retreat. It is here that director Ridley Scott expertly ma- big-budget Hollywood thrillers. Near the end of the nipulates framing by cutting to a close-up of Ripley's film, gumshoe Ned Ravine (Armand Assante), alone in sweaty, exhausted face as she leans against a bulkhead his big dark house, opens a bathroom medicine cabi- and carefully peers around a comer, white strobe flashes net-a black cat screeches and leaps out. Contextual- and red warning lights illuminating her. Scott achieves ized amidst constant silliness, Fatal Instinct's cat-startle, a visual frenzy corresponding to the dramatic moment. itself formally indistinguishable from effects which With the labyrinthine offscreen space of the Nostromo have startled viewers, likely has yet to startle any viewer hallway hidden beyond the narrow onscreen close-up on this planet.'3 of Ripley's frightened face, Scott changes the tempo Along with the tone of a film or sequence, pacing of the scene, Ripley's careful pause at the corer coun- appears crucial to generating film startles. By "pacing," terpointing her frenzied backtracking just moments be- I refer to the speed at which a threat scene develops, fore. As Ripley's eyes come ever closer to the unseen a factor contingent upon rates of staging, camera and space around the corer, the white strobe flashes are re- figure movement, editing. More complexly, pacing also placed by an incessant red glow from screen right. Here consists of what we might label the viewer's percep- Scott mounts his startle intrusion. In a shot only one- tual comprehension rate, the maximum rate he or she and-a-half seconds long, the viewer shares Ripley's may recognize objects, their locations, trajectories, and point of view of the alien: head rearing and moving velocities within the imaginary film space. Psycholo- quickly, searching, perhaps sensing Ripley. The previ- gist Robert Plutchik believes cognition evolved as a ously quiet music track erupts on cue with the alien mechanism to predict the future. 14 In this framework, image, an ominous bass and cello swell that matches startle appears to reflect microsecond failings to pre- the alien's rising movement and then continues over dict (perceptually anticipate) the identity, location, or Ripley's horrified, frozen reaction. Realizing her ac- status of a stimulus in a threatening context. We can cess to the shuttle is blocked, Ripley returns to try to tease out the significance of pacing to viewer surprise override the automatic detonation of the ship. and startle by conducting a brief thought experiment. This effect is powerful for many reasons, not least Let us take some infamously frightening threat scenes of which is the film's overall phenomenal trajectory, and potent startle effects, say from Night of the Liv- which successfully engages viewers in imagining one Dead ing (1968), Repulsion (1965), and Suspiria (1977), of cinema's most dreadful offscreen threats (try to re- and them for play first-time viewers on a variable speed member the alien before it was overexposed through It projector. is quickly apparent that the startle effects sequels, comic books, and millions of toys). In con- from all these films are rendered impotent when suf- trast, Ripley is a sympathetic, even admirable charac- slowed. The ficiently results are even more revealing ter, and, by film's end, the sole survivor and only because, even when slowed, fear and disgust remain remaining character for viewer identification. In ad- viable, if not amplified, during the presentation. Evi- dition, Scott manipulates pacing at the crucial moment scene dently pacing and spectator comprehension rate of the threat intrusion, contrasting near motionlessness viewer A impact surprise/startle. comparison of a threat with frenetic movement, achieved through the juxta- scene/startle effect in Alien (1979) with a derivative position of Ripley slowly inching toward the corer in one in will Deep Space (1987) illustrate how pacing close-up and the brief shock cut of the rapidly mov- and tone renders some threat intrusions startling and ing alien. This shock cut is not just a narrative surprise, others if not predictable, silly. but a formal one, a violation of the established pace of Near the end of Alien, Ripley (Sigomey Weaver), diegetic motion, editing, and shot duration. alone aboard the Nostromo with a deadly alien life form, Alien benefited from a large budget and a good decides to activate the automatic ship's detonation sys- script, from Ridley Scott's experience producing slick tem and escape in a shuttle craft. With only minutes to television spots and dynamic feature films, and from a races the to escape, Ripley through hallways a shut- collection of crafts and effects personnel as good as any tle, flame-thrower in one hand, a carrying-case hold- ever assembled for a science fiction or horror film. Fred cat ing pet Jonesey in the other. The electronic voice Olen Ray's Deep Space comes out of a different tra- of Mother, the warns of ship's computer, the ship's im- dition. One rung below Roger Corman in the pantheon minent detonation as emergency lights flash, steam is of low-budget filmmakers, Ray makes films for the and the atomic vented, reactor overheats. Ripley backs exploitation and straight-to-video markets. As a low-

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Alien:

Ripley slowly approaches a corner as she flees a Nostromo about to self-destruct.

The alien rears up and moves toward Ripley/camera.

Ripley frozen with fear, just before she flees.

budget copycat of Alien, Deep Space provides an ex- Napier discovers, like some misplaced basketball, the cellent opportunity to compare the effect of tone and head of a security guard. As he backs away from the pacing on startle affectivity. sight, Ray contracts the frame to a medium close-up, Deep Space is set not in space, but in a large Amer- an unmotivated red light illuminating the actor. Napier ican city, where character actor Charles Napier plays continues to back up as the monster moves forward a tough cop out to stop a military-industrial weapon into the background of the shot (an obvious homage to set loose on an unsuspecting populace. The weapon Ripley's hallway meeting with the alien on the Nos- turns out to be a toothy, tentacle-hurling, low-budget tromo). Throughout, the electronic music meanders in variation of H.R. Giger's alien design. It is this daunt- the background with little sense of rhythm or dramatic ing beast that Napier must confront in a dark and de- tempo. With Napier in the foreground and the toothy serted warehouse. Carrying a combat shotgun, a one in the background, the monster gives a feeble roar bandoleer of shells slung across his chest, and two pis- and Napier an equally feeble reaction of horror: the tols wedged between his belt, Napier enters the ware- fight is on. house alone and is quickly startled by a band of lovely Obviously Ray is sending up the genre and Alien, white pigeons, one of which perches on his shoulder but Deep Space does include other scenes with vigor- until he carefully brushes it off. It is about this time ous startles. Since threat scenes are scene-level con- that the viewer notes how well a fog-machine can dra- structions, they can powerfully and quickly establish a matize the space of an enclosed warehouse. Continu- predominant tone of horror or comedy independent ing his search in the foggy moor of the warehouse, of a narrative's overarching emotional tenor.15 The

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ineffectualness of the final battle in Deep Space is not mediated worlds. People respond to simula- a result of the film's overall context (there are other tions of social actors and natural objects as if threat scenes in Deep Space that do trigger startles). they were in fact social, and in fact natural.17 Rather, as products of their immediate spatial, tonal, It seems an obstinate and defensive rationalism that and formal contexts, threat scenes are, considering would deny our experience of film space and film ob- affect, highly local and independent structures. Locally, jects any of the phenomenological depth we to then, Scott keeps his alien in offscreen space as much bring reality. as possible, while Ray parades his alien for all the world One last startlefrom Alien might help with an to see. Where one threat intrusion is masterfully ma- analy- sis of viewer surprise as a microsecond phenomenon. nipulated to generate fear and startles, the other gen- After Kane (John Hurt) dies from the violent birth of erates ridicule, largely because the alien, already weakly the infant alien, Parker Dean rendered, is shown excessively, its intrusion more lum- Ripley, (Harry Stanton), and Brett (Yaphet Kotto) go for the beast bering than abrupt. In the end, Deep Space's slightly searching in the massive Nostromo. The search carries a arch, less-than-horrific mood largely mitigates the pos- party light, a large net, a six-foot electric and a sibility of viewer startle, a mood best exemplified by a prod, jerry- rigged sensor. The mise-en-scene is classic one-liner Napier utters to his partner before squaring dungeon darkness and gothic gloom, the literal bowels of this off with the film's threat: "I'm going to kick a little monster ass." massive ore-mining ship. Following the readings from her motion-tracker, before a row of If tone is crucial to spectator fear, what other fac- Ripley stops squat metal lockers. She to her tors impinge on spectator surprise? whispers hunting partners, it's in this Nearly all viewers know that horror and thriller "Parker, Brett, locker." The three prepare to open the locker door, and even a count- films might contain startle effects. How, then, can they Ripley gives down: "All right, Parker, when I . .. now." be surprised by effects they know are coming? I sug- say right From a low-angle three-shot of the tense crew mem- gest that the mind monitors space (including repre- bers, the startle effect is timed to a shock cut of an sentational-film space) for the location, identity, and extreme close-up of the cat, mouth status of nearby objects. Similarly, Robin Horton pro- Jonesey agape, scratching and inside the a reaction poses a "primary theory" of human cognition that tran- shrieking locker; shot of the three crew members follows: scends culture and is based, in part, on a continual need quickly they are to make "two major distinctions ... between human jerking downward, attempting to capture the terrified cat, which Brett lets because "It beings and other objects; and ... between self and go is only a cat." The sound burst that contributes to this startle effect is other."'6 There is an obvious utility to monitoring the synchronous with the shock cut of and is a flux of proximate objects, of which none are completely Jonesey symphony of discordant sound effects: cat stable, predictable, safe. Location constantly evolves overlapping screeches, metal clatter of relative to a perceiver. Identity can change in the most hinge movements, equip- ment, actor exclamations. fundamental ways: the living die; the dead move; the Although completely and limb becomes a snake, the friend a murderer. The state telegraphed, the oldest trick in the book (the cat- in-the-closet routine the startle is of objects is in constant flux: the fixed breaks away and parodied by Reiner), affective. The conclusion we falls; the tumbling projectile comes to rest; life rots. powerfully can draw, once again, is that conscious reason and a with Meanwhile, conscious attention is preoccupied with familiarity conventions narrow and new concerns. Would consciousness be ca- genre are poor methods for defusing the involuntary startle a pable of deactivating such essential survival cognitions response system, system keyed to momentary disturbances. this cat-in-the-box simply by recognizing the virtuality of a nearby space? Indeed, scene should be no or Not likely, say Bryon Reeves and Clifford Nass, who general global surprise coming, as it does as the eleventh threat argue in The Media Equation: How People Treat Com- scene in Alien and as the eighth startle. puters, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places that How does surprise empower Alien's Jonesey startle? Although first-time viewers could have anticipated Modem media now old brains. the engage People locker opening as a likely startle moment, they can't overcome the always powerful assump- would have been in suspense over the outcome of this tion that mediated presentations are actual peo- upcoming startle effect: Will the locker be empty or ple and objects. There is no switch in the brain contain something? Will the something be dangerous that can be thrown to distinguish the real and or benign? If dangerous, what will the threat do to the

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Alien:

The motion-tracker indicates something moving inside the locker.

Ripley, Brett, and Parker inch closer.

The cat reacts in a frenzy of movement.

Ripley, Brett, and Parker startle in unison.

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions crew members?Comparing affectively chargedstartle images, but also weakest to positive images, with neu- effects with weaker ones exposes how the weaker ef- tralimages falling betweennegative and positive, a cor- fects may develop too slowly to surprise competent relationthat is "independentof measuresof orienting, adultviewers. Sticking with the example at hand,first- arousal, and interest in the materials."20Some re- time viewers very likely are surprised by the inten- searchers hold that positive images inhibit the basic sity of the visual and auditorystimulus of the Jonesey level of startleresponse. startle. The shots preceding the shock cut of Jonesey Other experimentshave shown startle amplifica- rangefrom 30 to 5 seconds-the shockcut is only about tion even withoutslides or video images while subjects 1 second. The viewer's overall sense of a scene's speed recall and imagine negative-ratedsentences, such as: is effectedby cuttingrate as well as the degreeand type "I tense as THE NURSE SLOWLY INJECTS THE of movement of objects within the frame.In her shock SHARPNEEDLE INTO MY UPPERARM, andbeads cut, Jonesey is literally in a frenzy of motion-her of sweat cover my forehead."And, similarly,positive- movements, for a first-timeviewer, would almost re- rated sentences-"I AM RELAXING on my living sist coherentcognition, a bit of perceptualoverload ac- room couch LOOKINGOUT THE WINDOW ON A centuatedby the extremesof the shot scale: we see only SUNNY AUTUMN DAY"-lead to less powerfulstar- the cat's head and forepaws. Also, at this point in the tle blinks than either negative or neutralsentence im- narrative,first time viewers are unsureof the ontology agery.21The significance of this study should not be of the rapidly evolving alien organism-it might be- lost on humanists, nor rejected out-of-hand by those come anything.This surprisingvisual sensationof Jone- threatened by scientism or the wires and electrodes sey is coupled with auditorysurprises. As I noted, the of experimental psychology. What is being exposed sound burst for this startleis a complex composite of here is the power of the imagination, its capacity for various sounds, all of which, presented quickly, reg- visualization,and a linkageto affect thatbypasses con- ister, but as a phenomenal bit of caterwauling, made scious reason. the more surprisingby the preceding sound level that In a major synthesis of theories of film spectator- was set quite low.18 ship, Judith Mayne argues that much of film theory stems from two equally "extremepositions"-either a version of of Startle for "apparatus"theory in which the viewer is Implications Theory seen as fully determinedby the narrativefilm, or a re- consideration that sees viewers as active and resist- A numberof studies supportthe findingthat "thevigor ing consumersof films. For example, Mayne contrasts of the startle reflex varies systematically with an or- RaymondBellour and the Camera Obscuraapproach ganism's emotional state ... [specifically] the startle with StuartHall and culturalstudies theorists like John response (an aversive reflex) is enhancedduring a fear Fiske. To Mayne, state and is diminished in a pleasant emotional con- Both positions ascribean to text."Researchers have come to this conclusionthrough unqualifiedpower the text, on the one hand, and defined the method of showing subjects slides (that is, repre- socially readers/viewerson the other.The in sentations) previously classified as pleasant, neutral, problem each case is that the of and unpleasant, activity making mean- ing is assumedto residein one single source- of violent pictures death, snakes, bloody either the cinematic apparatus,or the socially wounds or bums, disasters,aimed guns, med- contextualized viewer. To be sure, variations ical injection, and angry, destitute, or starv- are allowed in either case, but they are never ing people; neutral slides were generally significant enough to challenge the basic de- common householdobjects, such as a hairdryer, terminismof the model in question.22 a book, and shoes; positively valent pictures All the theories of film studies ulti- includedopposite-sex nudes, romantic couples, significant rest, on models of babies, cuddly animals, sports scenes, and mately, simple causality,where a single ap- serves as the petizing food.19 agent determiningforce, whetherthe artist of auteurism,the patriarchyof feminism, the artobject are then startledwith Subjects sound and light bursts of formalism,the basic mental operationsof cognitive while fromeach of viewing images the threecategories. psychology, the capitalism of Marxist theory, or the Amazingly, startlesare not only strongestto negative psychological conflict between desire and control at

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the center of Freudianism. As writers and readers we movement, and facial response and in a few cases em- quite easily reduce 300-page books and entire careers phatically denied the possibility of such a response. to a "basic determinism," an expression of causality as Convinced only by a demonstration of the film, they simple as this causes that. Even nuanced works that were quite surprised to find that they 'made faces' when explore dynamic, multi-causal relationships ultimately the revolver was fired, despite their years of training" endow one agent as the primary causal force. (The Startle Pattern, 37). Startle is highly significant in this context. On first But startle is much more complex and interesting glance it appears an outstanding example of a biolog- than dumb, hardwired reflexes like the sneeze and the ically determined, universal effect, with little to do with knee-jerk. Even Landis and Hunt, who recognized and culture, capitalism, or media apparatus. Not surpris- described a general startle pattern, noticed that no two ingly, in Post-Theory, Noel Carroll uses startle to chal- startle responses were exactly alike. The nearer the lenge the contemporary theoretical assumption "that onset of the original response (speaking of microsec- every level of cinematic reception is fraught with po- onds), the more innate, "hard-wired"the response; con- litical and ideological repercussions." Carroll argues: versely, the further from onset, the more learning, context, and influenced behavior. ... it strikes me as incontrovertible that film- personality Ronald Simons, one of the few to write a book- makers often play upon what psychologists length study of startle, holds that startle "is determined call the "startle response," an innate human by a host of social and cultural factors to the tendency to "jump" at loud noises and to re- specific ongoing life of the individual affected."25 in- coil at fast movements. This tendency is, as Beyond dividual variation in startle, Simons describes a curi- they say, impenetrable to belief; that is, our be- ous Indonesian syndrome called latah, where a liefs won't change the response. It is hardwired minority of individuals in that culture exhibit, upon star- and involuntary. Awareness of this response being tled, "violent body movements; of habit- enables theorists like me to explain the pres- assumption ual defensive postures; out; or ence of certain audiovisual patterns and effects striking throwing dropping held objects; of words in horror films, without reference to politics shouting; repeating just said, or attended to; talk" and ideology. Indeed, insofar as the startle thought, naughty (233). Similar culture-based those sen- response is impenetrable to belief, it could responses by unusually sitive to startles, dubbed hyperstartlers,have been found be said to be, in certain respects, beyond pol- around the world, in Japan, the United States, Siberia, itics and ideology. Moreover, such examples and indicate that there is a stratum of theoretical Sweden, Thailand, Yemen, the Philippines. Simon rejects cultural relativist theories that seek to investigation at the level of cognitive archi- explain latah as solely a Malaysian culturalresult. Simons holds, tecture that can proceed while bracketing ques- and I believe he's that latah and its cousins are tions of ideology.23 right, founded on the universal startle response, but that par- Similarly, David Bordwell argues that certain film ticular cultures offer more or less fertile conditions for effects such as startle are not utterly arbitrary and transforming this response into unique social practices. but socially constructed, are-adapting Ernst Gom- In the last century, theorists of one camp or another brich-"sensory triggers"24 that are more indebted to have sought to enshrine nature or nurture as the dom- nature than effects which rely on higher, socialized inant, even singular, determining force of human ac- forms of learning. tivity. The nature/nurture opposition, unfortunately, is The powerful biological determinism of startle (its the most ubiquitous and vigilantly defended either/or hardwired is status) clear from Landis and Hunt's stud- fallacy of our age. In seeking to balance film studies' ies in the 1930s. Using high-speed cinematography, the widespread embrace of social determinism at the ex- two recorded New York psychologists City policemen pense of nature, David Bordwell reminds: "It is per- at the training firing range: "Every subject showed an fectly possible for a phenomenon to be culturally to shot. No matter eyelid response every how famil- constructed and at the same time to be very widespread, iar the men were with revolver practice, no matter how or even universal, among human societies."26 Startle, well trained the lid reflex they were, was present in at first glance an outstanding instance of genetic deter- case" Startle every (The Pattern, 36-7). Marksmen, of minism, becomes, with a second glance, a rich instance course, do not want to startle while carefully aiming: of cultural and personal elaboration. Eschewing fool- "The men were not conscious of the blinking, head ish consistency, startle is at once genetically hard-wired,

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions socially constructed,and personally expressed. Echo- motion, or real and amplified sound.29Films can ma- ing this point, British clinical psychologists Robert nipulate us, in part, by actually manipulatingour en- Howardand Rodney Ford note that a centuryof study vironments,constructing energy fields we take, before confirms the belief that startleis a "universalphysio- reason, to be extensions of the physical world. logical phenomenon consisting of an initial rapid in- voluntaryphase and a secondaryphase which is under some degree of voluntarycontrol."27 Who's Afraid of Surprises A film-basedstartle is a highly localized and preg- nant example of the contradictionsof cinema: of the Startle has probably been neglected, to some extent, muddle of natureand nurture,of the generic form and because no theory has given us the framework with personalpsychology. Any attemptto simplifythis event which to view it as emblematic of something impor- is a hobgoblin born of selective infatuationwith only tant aboutviewer psychology. In addition,startle may one aspect of a parallel, pluralistic mind. Poststruc- seem to most humanities-trainedfilm scholars a sub- turalisttheory recognizes those deterministicpercep- ject of study reserved for social scientists and psy- tual andemotional functions that are beyondour direct, chologists. But it is certainly more than a curio. As a consciousguidance, but then enshrinesthem as the only humanities-trainedfilm scholar,I don'trecommend our psychological processes that matter. Unfortunately, fieldbegin conductinglaboratory experiments (although as Mayne well notes, counter theories, whether from it would certainly be useful to consult with those de- cultural studies or cognitive science, frequently as- veloping experiments that focus on film and media). sert viewer activity at the expense of film's active role However, if we continue to neglect the recent, amaz- in determiningaffect and thought.Mayne cautionsthat ing work in the social sciences and cognitive psychol- spectator"activity can be just as vapid and indistincta ogy thatrelates to andinforms our concernswith media term as 'passivity"' (159). effects, we will maintain an insular and comfortable Startles show that part of the mind works from ignorance and fail both our individual curiosities and an ontological naivete embarrassing to the rational our collective responsibility to contributetoward in- intellect. "Partof the mind" is a crude way of saying tellectual discovery. thatfilm-based startles are characteristic of a mindfunc- Who's afraid of startles? I can playfully speculate. tioning in a massively parallel, modularprocess. The Poststructuralistsmight not fear startlespecifically, but popularfolk model of the mind assumes a division of they are decidedly troubled with the larger concepts mental faculties. Academically this folk insight has startle necessarily implies: biology, anthropological been channeled througheither a variationof psycho- universals,and evolutionaryadaptation that cannot be, analysis (split classically between Id, Ego, Superego) in the end, fully dissolved or transformedin Culture. or, more recently, through a type of cognitive paral- New cognitiverationalists and traditionalists might fear lelism or modularity. startlebecause it is, to a large degree, patently deter- Eddy Zemachhas recentlyemployed this divided- ministic, an irrationalexpression of the mind that can- mindfoundation to rebutKendall Walton's famous "pre- not be, in the end, reduced to free, conscious agency. tend" theory of aesthetic response.28Zemach argues Startleslept throughthe Enlightenment.For non-aca- thatfear and pity derivedfrom narratives are not "quasi" demics (most film reviewers and other journalistic emotions, but the real thing, although mitigated by a guardiansof the public good), startlesare the ultimate rational reader/viewerwho maintainsseparate mental form of sensationalism,artlessness, and mindlessness. "dossiers,"one of which, a "dominant"one, assertsits The only groups not afraidof startleappear to be film rational awareness of fictionality. Although we may viewers and makers, whose appreciationof the effect fear the green slimes of film, and pity the Anna Karen- remainsstrong after 50 years.Why have startleeffects inas of fiction, we do not act on these emotions: "For become a commonfeature of the horrorand thriller film rationaladults, emotion is nevera causeof action;rather, genres?The why questionis more difficult and diffuse it gives one a reason to act in a certain way. Reasons thanhow startlescan occur in film spectators.My own are weighed againstother reasons: they are defeasible, conclusion, not at all original, is that startlesprove to so emotion need not lead to action" (43). us, in the very maw of virtual death, how very much Regardingthe startleresponse: viewers can be star- alive we are. Much like the genres they are found in, tled film sound by and motion in partbecause the sys- startlesengage our primitivepsychophysiologies, and, tems that immediatelyattempt to judge soundand visual for an hour or so, mock and remembermortality. Per- motion make no distinctionbetween real and apparent haps, too, in revealing what we do not actively con-

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions trol of our psychology, startle effects reaffirm the an- of the Cat People (1944; 1 startle);Isle of the Dead (1945; 1 imalistic, the atavistic, and the irrational expressions startle). Ghost Ship, Lewton's only other horrorfilm, has been out of circulation due to its contested which the horror and thriller genres have long exposed long authorship; reviews and plot descriptions of the rathersensational tale beneath and reason. decorum, utopianism, suggest, however, that the film contains startles.According to Edmund G. Bansak's Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career Robert Baird has worked in and and (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 1995), Lewton appar- Hollywood taught feedback from his first bus effect in written about film at the of Illinois,where he ently got Cat People: University "When Lewton attended a sneak audience for the works at the Center for Educational Tech- preview currently film, he sat in the back and witnessed an entire audience He isWebmaster for Ebert'sOverlooked nologies. Roger in unison at the time" FilmFestival and the jumping appropriate (133). (http://www.ebertfest.com) designer 9. Pages 124-25 from Joel E. Siegel, Val Lewton: The Real- of an Web site for North Northwest oft-praised by (http: ity of Terror(New York: Viking, 1973). //www.english.uiuc.edu/ 104/northwest). 10. Playing the game of "cinematic firsts" is a bit dangerous, given how little of early cinema and records of early cinema spectatorship survive. I am certain that viewers were occasionally startledby films before Lewton's work at RKO. Notes For instance, a very few horror films of the 1930s (The Mummy[1932] and Island of Lost Souls [1933]) offer scenes 1. According to the classic study carried out by Carney Lan- where charactersact startledby threatsin contexts thatmight dis and William A. Hunt-The Startle Pattern, (New York: have made some viewers responsive. Even silent film might Farrar& Rinehart, 1939)-the startle response consists of have startled viewers, especially since much of it was ac- "the blinking of the eyes, head movement forward, a char- companied by in-house music and effects. Beyond these acteristic facial expression, raising and drawing forward of caveats, it remains that the early films I am familiar with the shoulders, abduction of the upper arms, bending of seem to lack the formal manipulations-shock cuts, tight the elbows, pronation of the lower arms, flexion of the fin- framing, close-up reaction shots, intense sound modula- gers, forwardmovement of the trunk,contraction of the ab- tions, and rapid visual movement-which Lewton first em- domen, and bending of the knees" (21). All of which may ployed. My point, then, is that Lewton formalized, even transpirein 0.3 to 1.5 seconds (SP, p. 31). Not all startlere- institutionalized, the startle for horror and thriller film in sponses involve the full complement of physical reactions. 1942 with his Cat People. At base, startleconsists of the core features of the eye blink, 11. Stanley J. Solomon, Beyond Formula: American Film Gen- the head movement forward, and the facial grimace. res (New York: Harcourt,Brace, Jovanovich, 1976), 112. 2. In the same vein, Jenefer Robinson proposes that the star- The strength and persistence of the condemnation of startle effect can serve as a "model of emotional response" tle effects can be seen in the defensive comments of some which "helps us understand the structure and function of threat scene directors. On the Criterion edition laserdisc emotional response in general" (54). Reversing philoso- commentary for Halloween (1978), John Carpenterthree phy's infatuation with highly conscious and refined emo- times comments on startle effects in a dismissive manner: Robinson tions, argues that any emotional response can be "You're about to hear one of my musical stings that per- seen as an elaborationof the startledynamic, "as a response meate the movie, I would say rathercrassly but effectively." that focuses our attention on (makes salient) and registers Later, he characterizes his use of false startles based on as to the significant goals (wants, motives) of the organism breaking glass and a ringing telephone as, respectively, a something in the perceived (remembered, imagined) en- "cheap trick" and a "kind of cheeseball trick." While this vironment" in (62): "Startle" The Journal of Philosophy, self-criticism of startle might play well under the bright 92:2 53-74. (1995), lights of academic and critical analysis, it does not lead, ap- 3. David J. Skal, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of parently, to any renunciation of the effect. More than a Horror York: (New W.W. Norton, 1993), 31-2. decade after Halloween, Carpenter'sIn the Mouth of Mad- 4. David Bartholomew, "The Horror Film," in The Political ness (1995) includes even more startleeffects than does his to American ed. Companion Film, Gary Crowdus (New Halloween. Indeed, the sound track for Madness betrays York: Lake View Press, 1994), 205. a veritable celebration of the sonic aspects of startle, em- 5. Dennis Horror Film Fischer, Directors, 1931-1990 (Jef- ploying intense and discordantsound bursts as loud and dy- ferson, N.C.: 666. McFarland, 1991), namic as any. The profits of this cheap trick apparently 6. David J. Gothic: Skal, Hollywood The TangledWeb ofDrac- exceed the cost of any critical tax levied against it. From ula, Novel to Stage to Screen (London: W.W. Nor- 12. Some rare and intriguing deviations do exist. See The Hid- ton, 73-4. 1990), den (1987) for a threatscene where a dog serves in the iden- 7. David J. Skal, Dracula: The Ultimate Illustrated Edition of tificatory protagonist position of a startle effect. Filmed at the World-Famous York: St. VampirePlay (New Martin's a dog's-eye level, a cute mutt approaches a female stripper Press, 74. 1993), who has just fallen to her death in an alley. The corpse's 8. Lewton's horror films in are, descending order, based on eyes (an alien life form occupies her body) pop open (star- total number of startle effects: The Seventh Victim (8 startle cue) and the alien/stripper lunges for the dog. The ob- tles); The Man 4 Leopard (1943; startles); Bedlam (1946; vious implication, proven by countless outings by Lassie 4 startles);Cat The Snatcher People (2 startles); Body (1945; and Rin Tin Tin, is that humans can strongly identify with 1 startle); I Walkedwith a Zombie (1943; 1 startle); Curse dogs and other domesticated animals.

This content downloaded from 192.17.24.199 on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:10:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 13. A true threatis not necessary to generate a startleresponse. Psycho-shower screeches, John Williams' sharkmotif from What is needed is only the possibility of a threat, the inti- Jaws, "TubularBells" from The Exorcist. But music can mation of something dangerous offscreen. In fact, in many do more than set the mood. It can serve as the primary or instances the offscreen "threat"turns out to be comically sole auditory stimulus for startle. A massive symphonic unintimidating:a ringingtelephone in The Exorcist;a cuckoo music burst in Roger Corman's House of Usher (1960) clock striking the top of the hour in the original Invasion heralds Vincent Price's unexpected entry into the film. of the Body Snatchers (1956); the ubiquitous domesticated In Repulsion, Polanski uses a solo music burst in a star- feline (Jonesey the cat, twice used as a false startlein Alien); tle effect that turns on the discovery of a skinned rabbit the ever watchful guard dog (The Seventh Victim, Candy- corpse inside Deneuve's handbag. While startle effects ob- man [1992], The Hills Have Eyes [1978], The Howling viously depend on the sheer loudness of sound bursts, I [1980]). Other animals that have been enlisted for false suspect that the inchoate, disharmony of many sound ef- threats: an owl in Cat People (1982), an excited baboon fects (exploited by odd instruments and synthetic sound in The Fly (1986), a bird in I Walkedwith a Zombie, a leop- combinations) stimulates anxiety in viewers who are at- ard in The Leopard Man, a raccoon in The Client, a squir- tempting to maintain some sense of and orientation to a rel in Species (1995), and, my favorite, a little bunny in The film's aural setting. Spiral Staircase (1946). Besides the extensive catalogue of 19. Pages 377, 382, in Peter J. Lang, MargaretM. Bradley, and false startlesbased on flora and fauna (a tumbleweed in The Bruce N. Cuthbert,"Emotion, Attention, and the StartleRe- Leopard Man), there is the widely used example of the flex," Psychological Review 97:3 (1990), 377-95. friendly blindside startle, the old tap-on-the-shoulder rou- 20. Page 487 from Scott R. Vrana, Ellen L. Spence, and Peter tine (The Exorcist, Jaws, Halloween, The Blob [1988], J. Lang, "The Startle Probe Response: A New Measure of Aliens, Invasion of the Body Snatchers [1978], Fatal At- Emotion?," Journal of Abnormal Psychology 97:4 (1988), traction [ 1987], Knight Moves [1992]). Notice that most 487-91. false startles are dominated by anthropocentrically signif- 21. See Scott R. Vrana and Peter J. Lang, "Fear Imagery and icant agents: humans and animals. These categories are, of the Startle-Probe Reflex," Journal of Abnormal Psychol- course, potentially threateningin ways vegetable and min- ogy 99:2 (1990), 189-97, and, from note 19 above, eral are not. "EASR," 386-87. 14. Robert Plutchik, "Emotions: A General Psychoevolution- 22. JudithMayne, Cinema and Spectatorship(New York:Rout- ary Theory,"in Approachesto Emotion,ed. Klaus R. Scherer ledge, 1994), 94. and Paul Ekman (Hillsdale, N.J: L. Erlbaum, 1984), 209. 23. See page 50 of Carroll's"Prospects for Film Theory:A Per- 15. This back-and-forth movement between jokey and fright- sonal Assessment," in Post-Theory. ening threat scenes can be seen in films like The Fearless 24. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Vampire Killers (1967), An American Werewolf in Lon- Representation(Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, don (1981), The Howling, Re-Animator (1985), and Army 1961), 146-91. of Darkness (1993). 25. See page 14, Boo! Culture,Experience, and the Startle Re- 16. Robin Horton, "Tradition and Modernity Revisited," in flex, by Ronald C. Simons (New York: Oxford University Rationality and Relativism, ed. Martin Hollis and Steven Press, 1996). Lukes (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982), 201-60. Hor- 26. See page 104, "Convention, Construction, and Cinematic ton's primary theory is also quoted in Bordwell's essay Vision," in Post-Theory. "Convention,Construction, and Cinematic Vision," in Post- 27. Robert Howard and Rodney Ford, "From the Jumping Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, ed. David Bordwell Frenchmen of Maine to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: and Noel Carroll (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, The Startle Response in Neuropsychiatry,"Psychological 1996), 92. Medicine 22 (1992), 695-707. 17. The Media Equation (New York: Cambridge University 28. Eddy M. Zemach, "Emotion and Fictional Beings," Jour- Press, 12. 1996), nal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54:1 (Winter 1996), 18. Most startle effects rely on a sound bump, a sudden burst 41-8. of sound effects, dialogue, and/or music. While many star- 29. For compelling argumentsthat basic perception cannot dis- tle effects rely on symphonic bursts of sound, a few sin- tinguish between real and apparentmotion, see the work of element sound gle bursts can be heard, like the powerful Joseph and BarbaraAnderson: "Between Veridicality and foley bump at the end of The Stepford Wives (1975). Illusion," Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 6.2 Katharine Ross slowly climbs the stairs in her own home, (Spring 1992), 173-82; "A Cognitive Approach to Conti- searching for her children, believing her husband to be nuity,"Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities 13.1 with the local conspiring Men's Club to manufacture bet- (Fall 1993), 61-6; "The Myth of Persistence of Vision," ter women, and is startled by her husband (foley burst) Journal of the University Film and VideoAssociation 30.4 who has snuck up behind her. Music, ominous and dis- (Fall 1978), 3-8; "The Myth of Persistence of Vision Re- cordant, unquestionably contributes to the fear state that visited," Journal of Film and Video 45.1 (Spring 1993), preparesthe way for startleresponses: BernardHerrmann's 3-12.

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