James Cameron’s most popular jump scare film

His appreciation for classic films doesn’t stop at the data that can be gleaned from them. In one piece from 2021 Empire MagazineThe Avatar The director delved into his favorite film memories and revealed the jump scare that impressed him the most.

“The most visceral moment of audience reaction that I remember from my early filmmaking years is the moment of shock Wait until it gets dark” he said. “People can talk about it Foreigner or Psycho or whatever all day long, but the scene that I remember vividly and that really rocked the house was when Alan Arkin, the murderer – presumed dead by the audience – jumps out of the darkness and the ankle poor, blind Audrey Hepburn grabs. Of course, there is a stimulus that has become part of classical music – a single massive strike of a piano string that felt like an electric shock to the spine.”

Adding: “The entire audience lost their minds – throwing themselves back in their seats and screaming like little girls – myself included.” It was physical, involuntary, universal and perfectly synchronized […] Of course, when you see it now, it seems harmless compared to everything that has been done in the last fifty years, although it’s still admirable how the tension quietly builds until it comes to a boil. Interestingly, I saw the film at the drive-in theater a year later and still remember the muffled screams coming from all the cars.”

Terence Youngs Wait until it gets dark is an underrated gem of the 1960s and a sonic departure for Hepburn. In it, Breakfast at Tiffany’s Star plays a blind woman who is tormented by a group of con artists looking for a drug-filled doll. It’s a sadistic thriller that relies more on suspense than gore. The villains torture Hepburn’s character with both gaslighting and violence, gradually ratcheting up the tension throughout the film at such a masterful pace that you don’t realize how tense you are until the infamous jump scare. Effect triggers everything to the surface.

Although Wait until it gets dark will almost certainly never be Hepburn’s most famous film, but her performance earned her an Oscar nomination for its raw, sustained power. Meanwhile, Young’s direction and Henry Mancini’s eerie score helped script horror films for decades to come.

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