Everybody wear sunscream: Jaws and other daylight horror

When you think of horror you typically think darkness and things that go bump in the night, but in the world of cinematic horror the light of the sun offers no escape from fear and fearsome things.

We look at some of the greatest daylight horror moments.

The Birds (1963)

Acting almost as a pre-curser to JAWS (1975) Hitchcock’s The Birds gave us nature against man in a small coastal town horror over a decade before a great white shark caused chaos on Amity Island.

The birds unleash their winged chaos in broad daylight, including an assault on the town which results in a huge gas station fire, as well as perhaps the film’s signature moment outside the schoolhouse where a flock of birds attack and peck the escaping school children. From the sound effects to the editing,

Hitchcock still very much has the power to shock in this technicolour attack, a far cry from the black and white of his previous film, Psycho.  

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Tobe Hooper’s debut is not just beautifully shot – the iconic tracking shot of one of the girls walking to the house – but much of the horror takes place in broad daylight and the brilliant sunshine beating down on the lost teens attempting to avoid Leatherface and his power tools.

That use of the sun and light almost gives it that feeling of cinema verité, all of which makes it that much more disturbing and real.

JAWS (1975)

The opening attack on Chrissie Watkins may take place at night but it is perhaps the death of young Alex Kintner that takes places on a packed beach in the middle of the day that has the most lasting impact, with the build up and rising tension to that scene a masterclass in building suspense through the power of editing, helping ensure audiences and beachgoers never saw beaches in quite the same way ever again.

Or perhaps it is the nightmare fuel of the great white shark grabbing for the Estuary Victim from his small boat as he is pulled beneath the waves to his doom. Even the finale and the disturbing death of Quint, the captain of the Orca, takes place in broad daylight.

The Omen (1976)

The Omen may have recently got the Rogue One treatment with The First Omen, but it all started back in 1976 with the Richard Donner-directed original which still features some of the greatest cinematic shocks and deaths ever committed to celluloid, all of which take place in daylight.

Whether it is the nanny proclaiming “it’s all for you” and hanging her self at Damien’s birthday party, Father Brennan being struck by a falling church spire and pinned to the floor or David Warner’s photographer being decapitated by a sheet of glass, all continue to long resonate in the mind long after you have seen them.  

Halloween (1978)

Although The Shape may spend much of his time lurking in the shadows in his pimped William Shatner mask it is some of the film’s early scenes that really disturb with the character stalking Laurie Strode (Jamie Leigh Curtis) and her friends standing ominously next to hedges or standing in between washing that is drying, both in the day time.

They are such simple shots, but both carry so much power and help build that persona of the bogeyman who is always there.

Friday the 13th (1980)

After surviving a head chopping showdown with Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), Alice (Adrienne King) finds safety and sanctuary in a canoe on Camp Crystal Lake, it a picture of calmness, still and safety with the police arriving in the background. Until that is the deformed body of a young Jason Voorhees emerges from the water with a knife and grabs Alice…but thankfully it is all a dream sequence and Alice is safe in hospital.  

Sure, Carrie may have pulled the same trick a few years earlier but Jason’s emergence from the water it arguably the more famous and the most iconic of the two and is a textbook jump scare, made all the more unexpected by its daylight setting and the way the scene is set up.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

The freeway pile up premonition that opens up the film Final Destination 2 is perhaps one of the greatest adverts for road safety, once seen you’ll never look at a truck hauling logs in quite the same way ever again…you’ll certainly never want to be stuck behind one carrying them that is for sure.

The whole jaw dropping sequence, which still holds up today, takes place in the early morning rush hour and many of the subsequent death scenes throughout the rest of the film also unfold in the day, showcasing that death can indeed strike at any time.  

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

It’s morning and suburbia has gone into meltdown and complete chaos in the opening ten minutes to this film which is a remake of the George A Romero zombie classic from 1978.

It’s a total assault on the senses and – like the characters in the thick of it – barely gives you chance to catch your breath. Director Zack Snyder – here in his film debut – and writer James Gunn certainly know how to grab the audience by the balls and drag them straight into the film and unfolding horror and never letting them go for the rest of the story.

Words and interview by Dean Newman.

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