The Role of Sound: 'The Haunting of Hill House' Analysis - TV Studies

This essay explores the artistic and technical aspects of sound in television, focusing on its crucial role in creating atmosphere, conveying information, and enhancing the viewer's experience, particularly within the horror genre. It discusses the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound, emphasizing how elements like volume, tempo, and pitch can be manipulated to evoke specific emotional responses. The analysis centers on 'The Haunting of Hill House,' examining how sound design, including jump scares, synth beats, and non-linear sounds, contributes to the show's eerie and immersive atmosphere. It concludes that sound is a vital component in horror films, creating tension and unease through both explicit effects and the strategic use of silence.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
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1INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
Introduction- The artistic potential of any medium is understood through the unique way
though it portrays the art by usage of a typical medium called communication. Therefore, the
right form includes the circumstances under which the message or the art reaches the general
public or the audiences. In a similar way the art of the radio is also discovered as an effective
way of broadcasting the art but by only through the usage of sound. Radio is the only medium
where the artist or the performer remains invisible to the audience. Later on the in the year 1950
to the 1960’s the radio was overtook by television. During the initial stages the television as a
medium was considered to be a different than the radio and it was thought to be different from
the film. Later on the television became hungry for the films as the films were different from the
theatres (Holman 2012).
Sound can be referred to everything that can be heard in a film or a movie, it can be
words, music and sound effects as well. The usage of sound can heighten the mood and it can
provide the viewer with the information regarding the characters in the story, advance of the plot
and the location of the scene. There are two categories of sound that can be heard in a film, they
can be non-diegetic and diegetic. The diegetic sound can be described as the audio element that
emanate from the sources that are present inside that is seen on the screen. While the non-
diegetic sound can be referred as the audio element that emanate from the outside world that can
be seen on the screen. It can include the musical score or the sound effects from the screeches
present in horror films or psycho films (Hendrickx, Paquier and Koehl 2015).
Importance of sound effects in a film- sound effects are used to add atmosphere or even
add mood to the film by the creation of an extra layer that provided meaning to the images on the
screen. Volume, tempo and pitch can be used and altered by the filmmaker and it can be
expected how the audience will react to a given element of noise. For instance, the swinging of

2INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
the door, sound of the waves, low pitch sounds, screams and squealing of tires, high pitch sounds
are explicitly used create a sense of anxiety (Winter 2014). It is also important to mention that
the usage of sound in a movie is the best way to proving the absence of it, the silence at some
point of the time in the films are used to freeze the frame. The lack of sound can be used to arrest
the attention of the viewer and also highlight the some of the actions as it can change the
direction of the story. In the recent year, sound effects are added to the movies so as to heighten
the film experience. While many of the sound experiences include the animal sounds, wind,
phaser blast and explosions. Besides it is important to mention that the creating louder sounds the
sound effects draw more attention and to the sound due to the advancement in the technology of
sound the sound effects becomes more directional. It appears to come from a specific direction
and the and it appears to be more highlighting (Chattopadhyay 2017). The directional quality of a
movie tends to enhance and create a three-dimensional sense in a movie. It has been seen that the
sound effects in horror movie tend to freak out majority of viewers. A person sitting in a movie
theatre and the everything is pitch black except a dim glow on the screen. In this particular
scenario, nothing seems to scary but suddenly a person starts to walk alone. At that very moment
a viewer will definitely feel a sense of dread. The sounds that are used in the horror movies
aren’t always usual. The high pitch squeals and the deep rumbling signal towards the danger
almost instantaneously. It is important to note that the distant calls of the animals and the woman
screaming are the non-linear sounds and are called as the irregular noises that have higher
wavelengths that exist in nature. The sounds are buried into the complex movie score and they
sometimes give an internal roller coaster ride, and also provide the viewers with the adrenaline
rush. Thus, taking the element of sound from a normal context and placing it with a new one can
make it scarier (Cuff 2018).

3INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
To analyse the television show “The Haunting of Hill House” Season 1 Episode 10. One
has to take a deeper note of that there are several jump scares throughout the entire episodes.
However, it is important to mention that there are less number of jump scares and one might
expect that there is a series based on the entire haunted house and it has several horror elements.
To highlight the Episode number 10, there is a single tense frame 19:32 where the Theo turn
around and at this very moment the ghost of poopy hill is just right in front of her. This is
specially a high tense moment where one can hear a high pitch sound and high amount of fear
being instilled into the audiences and viewers (theverge.com 2019). The unrelenting synth beats,
shrieking violins and the whispering voices are the key elements that are used in an eerie movie
and this provides the punch that are needed in a horror movie and it acts to provide an immersive
experience to the author. In the movie set up the usage of the negative space is everything when
the frame is not the subject of focus and it meant to provide the eyes of the viewers a place to
rest. A plain underexposed dark space is the used explicitly in all the movie sets. Along with the
frightening visuals, the spooky environment also provides a soundscape that brings all the things
together. The usage of the non-linear sounds in the horror movies creates and atmosphere of
unease for the viewers. People screaming, distressed animals and the clunking oil rig all
potentially create an environment of tension and it gives sense of unease among majority of the
viewers. Researchers have highlighted that the humans sense it to be a danger when they hear
high pitched squeal. Infrasound are such sounds that provide a sense of fright for the human
body because it cannot be heard by the human ears. Infra-sounds are naturally occurring and the
created by the rumbling, avalanches, earthquakes, and wind. This low frequency of sound can
unsettle humans if it heard for a very a long period of time (Hutchings 2014).

4INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
Conclusion- From the above discussion it can be concluded that The usage of sound can
heighten the mood and it can provide the viewer with the information regarding the characters in
the story, advance of the plot and the location of the scene. Volume, tempo and pitch can be used
and altered by the filmmaker and it can be expected how the audience will react to a given
element of noise. For instance, the swinging of the door, sound of the waves, low pitch sounds,
screams and squealing of tires, high pitch sounds are explicitly used create a sense of anxiety.
The directional quality of a movie tends to enhance and create a three-dimensional sense in a
movie. It has been seen that the sound effects in horror movie tend to freak out majority of
viewers.

5INTRODUCTION TO TV STUDIES
Reference
Chattopadhyay, Budhaditya. "Reconstructing atmospheres: Ambient sound in film and media
production." Communication and the Public 2, no. 4 (2017): 352-364.
Cuff, Paul. "Encountering sound: the musical dimensions of silent cinema." Journal of
Aesthetics & Culture 10, no. 1 (2018): 1424484.
Hendrickx, Etienne, Mathieu Paquier, and Vincent Koehl. "Audiovisual spatial coherence for 2D
and stereoscopic-3D movies." Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 63, no. 11 (2015): 889-
899.
Holman, Tomlinson. Sound for film and television. Focal press, 2012.
Hutchings, Peter. The horror film. Routledge, 2014.
theverge.com. 2019. "Netflix’S Haunting Of Hill House Is Like This Is Us Wrapped In A Gothic
Ghost Story". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/28/17911720/haunting-of-hill-
house-review-netflix-shirley-jackson-mike-flanagan.
Winter, Bodo. "Horror movies and the cognitive ecology of primary metaphors." Metaphor and
Symbol 29, no. 3 (2014): 151-170.