Anyone who has sat in a theater in the 90s and heard the THX Deep Note knows the feeling. Before a movie even begqn, the room ...

The iconic shower scene in Psycho was originally supposed to play out without music. Instead composer Bernard Herrmann created “The Murder”: as the killing transpires, violins shriek and scream along ...

The world is full of sounds, and sound can affect us greatly. Some sounds are pleasant, like the laughter of a small child or a babbling brook in a peaceful forest. Other sounds are unpleasant, like ...

The brain has evolved to interpret these irregular sounds as potential danger, triggering that instinctive “fight or flight” response. It’s the reason the screeching violins in the movie “Psycho” or ...

This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. Horror movies are a tennis match between the haunting absence of sound and ...