The opening scene of “Get Out” (2017) shows a black man walking through a neighborhood very late at night. He is on his phone trying to direct himself somewhere by looking at directions on his phone. All of a sudden you see a car drive past him and then turn around, slowly creeping up behind him. Whenever he stops, the car stops with him. You can faintly hear this creepy music coming from the car, which makes it a diegetic sound. He decides to stop walking that direction and turn himself around and walk the other way. In the background you see the door of the car is now opened and the man turns around to see that. All of a sudden, another character comes out of nowhere and knocks him out. Up until this moment, we only heard diegetic sounds. The car driving, the crickets, and footsteps were all diegetic. Once he was dragged to the car by this man wearing a mask, then we hear eery music in a very clear way that sounds as if you are listening to it with headphones on which sends shivers down the viewers’ spine. The music is very important because it sets the mood for the rest of the movie. It makes it very clear that it is a horror film and that the audience should be expected to be scared. Without the music, it is a scary looking scene, but it does not get you heart pumping as fast without the music. You also hear the word “run” a lot within the lyrics of the song, which gives it that horror film feeling. There is a clear flute in the song as well which gives it a creepy feel to the scene.


Hi Sam! I found your blog exciting because I too can feel that the diegetic cricket sound makes the situation so scary and give horror feelings. I think dog barking diegetic sound also symbolize that something wrong is going to happen because dogs have exceptional hearing and sense of smell. I like how this horror clip has a mysterious sound selection. In the middle, the piece of music sounds funny but when the car was about to leave, the slam of the door sounds horrible and violin sound at the end increase curiosity among the audiences.