In the case of a century-old genre, it is more than understandable that the narrative mechanisms and linguistic codes of horror cinema are well assimilated. At this point in the film, it’s hard to catch the most seasoned viewer off guard and bounce in their seat as their nerves rage, but there was a time when, of course, things weren’t like that.
the other jumpscare
Perhaps one of the best-known terms related to gender is that of jumpscare; a tool designed to scare the viewer, usually with a sudden increase in volume or a shrill sound effect that totally breaks the tension that has been accumulating in a scene and that is already a whopping seventy years old.
It is considered that the first use of a jumpscare dates from 1942, the year in which Jacques Tourneur’s ‘The Panther Woman’ was released. In one of her scenes, Alice, the character played by Jane Randolph, walks alone through some dark city streets while Simone Simon’s Irena follows her. As Alice grows restless, quickening her pace, our only company is silence and the sound of her shoes, and when we think that Irena is going to attack at any moment… a bus comes into shot making an unexpected noise.
This trick, in which a real threat is replaced by a harmless element at the last moment, It has survived to this day under the name of “The Lewton Bus” —”Lewton’s Bus”—; Awarded in honor of the film’s producer Val Lewton, who incorporated the resource into several of his subsequent works.
In this way, and although it was initially used as a synonymous with what we now know simply and simply as jumpscareLewton’s bus has come to be associated with those irritating moments in which terror explodes in an artificial way —and, why not say it, cheaply—, culminating in a kind of coitus interruptus that, yes, triggers the pulsations despite its cheating will.