How many jump scares in movie are appropriate?
 

(Original) Carrie: One right at the end with the hand coming out of the ground to grab Amy Irving's character

The Shining: Zero genuine jump scares

Alien: One. Monster right behind Dallas in the ducting work. OK, Riply in the space pod turning her head around to see monster right there. Chest burster scene is probably one of the best shock scenes of all time but is it really a jump scare?

Signs: Two. Maybe three.

Today at matinee. The Quiet Place. About six. I loved the movie but how many times does a person really need to shiet his pants a little bit in a movie?

Yes, but it’s impressive they did it without dialogue!

I guess they were just showing off.

They were really frikkin good jump scares.

The worst jump scene I ever saw was in the "2 Girls and a Cup"video.

This one?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1524092429.jpg

Do not search it, but I believe you are correct.

Oh you just had to go there!

True that. Once seen cannot be unseen.

Don't ax me how I know.

Spielberg in JAWS did two. Once when Dreyfus was diving on the Dingy and the head came out of the hole in the boat. The second was when Roy Schieder was chumming the water and the shark comes out of the water.

The second scene didn't have the same shock impact as the first. So according to Spielberg you can do it once in a movie for maximum effect. If anybody should know, it is him.

That head sent me through the roof. Oil City, PA with my brother in 74'-ish.

That has to be the best of all time.

Once or twice. That's enough. It becomes silly beyond that. Effective but irritating.

To the OP:

Few as possible. I hate jump scares.

I drive a car. I avoid jump scares there, too.

And mirrors.

This from widipedia on Alien and that scene:

For the filming of the chestburster scene, the cast members knew that the creature would be bursting out of Hurt, and had seen the chestburster puppet, but they had not been told that fake blood would also be bursting out in every direction from high-pressure pumps and squibs.[23][72] The scene was shot in one take using an artificial torso filled with blood and viscera, with Hurt's head and arms coming up from underneath the table. The chestburster was shoved up through the torso by a puppeteer who held it on a stick. When the creature burst through the chest a stream of blood shot directly at Veronica Cartwright, shocking her enough that she fell over and went into hysterics.[23][26][28] According to Tom Skerritt: "What you saw on camera was the real response. She had no idea what the hell happened. All of a sudden this thing just came up."[26] The creature then runs off-camera, an effect accomplished by cutting a slit in the table for the puppeteer's stick to go through and passing an air hose through the puppet's tail to make it whip about.[26]

The real-life surprise of the actors gave the scene an intense sense of realism and made it one of the film's most memorable moments. During preview screenings the crew noticed that some viewers would move towards the back of the theater so as not to be too close to the screen during the sequence.[54] The scene has frequently been called one of the most memorable moments in cinema history.[73] In 2007, Empire magazine named it as the greatest 18-rated moment in film, ranking it above the decapitation scene in The Omen (1976) and the transformation sequence in An American Werewolf in London (1981).[74]

Scatman Crothers and the axe scene doesn't count? ;)

My college roommate saw that movie and then took me to it even after he vehemently reassured me that there were no bloody shock scenes in it.

I think he paid to see the movie the second time just to see a real horror reaction scene sitting right next to him.

Azzwhole.

I did have the foresight to see the Exorcist at a matinee so it wasn't dark out when it was over.

That's what she does best.

Ridley Scott told her that she was cast to reflect the fear of the audience.

She was a big ol' crybaby in The Birds as a kid and freaked out when Donald Sutherland ratted her out in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

She is the quintessential nervous Nellie. Superb.

I typed that in in the original post but then thought of the time delay that it took Jack to travel from behind the column to when the axe hit Scatman.

Given the slow rolling of The Shining, it was "fast" but not that fast.

Go to one minute in. It has jump scare audio but the timing is delayed/staggered.

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I smoked, as a noob, robust pot before Alien.

Dropped microdot acid before the Exorcist. Perhaps blotter? It's been decades.

I think the pot intensified Alien in a favorable way. Acid and the Exorcist altered my life for many months.

Just saying. What's the term? YMMV?

Last time ever for seeing trails with a waved cigarette for me.

Huh...I did shrooms and saw Drop Dead Fred. That will alter your life.

I hid behind the couch during most of the Creature From the Black Lagoon.

What??? You could see the damn zipper on the back of his suit!

Not from behind the couch you can't.

American Werewolf in London has a few, not too many, but a couple. Worked in a theater when it came out.

NSFW, extreme violence
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Way back in 1975 or 1976 when Jaws came to Montgomery, AL it was shown at the grand old ornate huge downtown movie theater. I brought a date and we sat in the balcony so we could be um, close to each other. It was the big new movie and she wanted to see it. When the head rolled out of the hole in the boat I was pretty sure she was going to cut my arm off with her fingers squeezing my arm. That girl had a grip!

Jaws is not a good make-out movie even for young 20+ something couples. I learned that lesson that night. It is far better to suffer through a total chick movie and help get her in a romantic mood.

Because I know it's all fake nothing ever made me really jump...until Aliens.
I almost pooped myself when that forker popped out.

The House on Haunted Hill scared me as a kid. The Exorcist traumatized me for years.

I guess as a non Catholic, Exorcist just did not scare me at all. It was like a cartoon over the top, and I never believed it was real or possible in the slightest. It was like the Coyote getting flatted after falling off the cliff and just shaking to get his shape back. Or it was like the Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger or whatever the name of that silly movie was. Where Nijas or the fighters could fly, it was just too far out to get my brain into viewing involvement.

I am not Catholic either and the exorcist gave me nightmares.

I saw The House on Haunted Hill (with Vincent Price) when I was about 11. Terrifying!! The acid bath, the creepy old lady gliding through the room, the drops of blood, and yea - Vincent Price! All in black and white making it even more scary!

The Pit and the Pendulum - another Vincent Price movie - was really scary as well.

The wife and kid like the Annabelle-conjuring-insidious movies. Nothing but cheap scares.

I was pretty ok with those movies. Yep on the cheap scares but movies had a wee bit of depth.

I am wide open to crap sci-fi and horror. Those mentioned movies were better.

One of these guys mentioned "A Serbian Film" 18 months ago, Sammy or Tabs?

I watched it.

Movie was good but it will alter you as an adult like The Exorcist can if you are a candy bone (like I was at 15)

I have an editors copy of the Exorcist, although I watched on tv as a kid, I still haven't watched my copy and I've had it over ten years.

Movie freaks my non-Catholic ass out.

Linda Blair was in my home room in high school.

We didn’t think the movie was a big deal.