Some people love to be terrified. Some more reasonable people dislike being scared, and want to enjoy a classic horror film without worrying about cheap shock tactics. For those people, there is Where’s the Jump?, a database of jump scares in horror, thriller, and sci-fi movies.
For each movie, Where’s the Jump? lists the timecode of each jump scare, a description of each scare (which you can hide to avoid spoilers), and highlighted “major scares.” There’s also general info like the movie’s IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores, genre tags, and whether Netflix has it. You can sort the master list by any of these factors; check out the list of low jump scare movies to find scary or freaky movies that don’t rely on jump scares, such as A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night or the still-terrifying The Silence of the Lambs.
Jump scares can be artfully executed or cheaply overused, as explored in this video essay from Now You See It. As Where’s the Jump discusses, there are clichés within the cliché: the mirror scare, the fridge scare, the “it’s just a cat” fake-out. Some scares are a ton of fun, and if you enjoy them, more power to you! Here’s a list of the movies with the most jump scares! But sometimes, some of us just want to be ready. We’re willing to trade a bit of plot spoilers for peace of mind.
Where’s the Jump? joins the pantheon of helpful databases of good/bad/missable bits in movies:
- RunPee: Describes the most skippable scenes in a movie so you can take a bathroom break
- The Movie Spoiler: Recaps the entire plot of a movie, in long and short forms
- TV Tropes: Lists multiple types of high points, such as “crowning moments of awesome,” and heartwarming or funny scenes
Where’s the Jump? [Home page]
Comments
One response to “Make Horror Movies Less Scary With ‘Where’s The Jump?’”
I think the site needs to differentiate between a real jump scare and a fake jump scare. A “fake scare” like the cat that jumps out of the dark when the audience is expecting the killer/monster is cheap, but you can have a real jump scare that’s super effective and doesn’t devalue the movie.
Take the movie Alien, the site lists 11 jump scares. Which sounds like a lot and taken by itself would imply the movie isn’t good. But if you look at the scenes there are only really two fake scares. And even then, one of the scares is actually pretty natural and shows the crew is tense and on edge (when Ripley is startled by Dallas knocking some stuff over). Leaving only one really cheap jump scare (sadly a cat one).
It lists several iconic scenes as jump scares, the facehugger bursting out the egg, the chestburster and the Alien getting Dallas in the vent. None of which should be counted as bad. They’re all amazing scenes and deliver genuine scares from genuine threats. They also serve to set up tense moments in later movies. Just the sight of the eggs or someone clutching their chest is terrifying.