Stage designers in the UK say the secret to a great scare in the theatre is darkness, silence, and what the audience cannot see. Across the country, horror shows are filling theatres by using shadows and quiet moments rather than showing fake monsters clearly on stage.
Theatre makers explain that showing too much can quickly ruin the fright. Chris Fisher, an illusions designer who worked on the stage version of Paranormal Activity, calls this the "Jaws effect." He notes that in the famous film, seeing a shark fin in the water and hearing the music is much scarier than looking at a mechanical shark head. On stage, showing a monster directly often looks silly or fake, but leaving an empty shadow invites people to fill in the danger with their own imaginations.
Timing and sound are also essential to building tension. Carolyn Downing, a sound designer for the stage adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, says that scaring people requires the same exact timing as comedy. If a frightening sound arrives even a second too late, or when the audience already expects it, the brain immediately stops believing the moment.
Directors also rely on setting an atmosphere that slowly pulls away the audience's sense of safety. In the touring show Blackout, creator Sam Beech uses total darkness and silence to make spectators feel that something is hiding nearby. Even though people know the play is not real, waiting together in the dark makes the fear feel immediate and exciting.