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Monsters

A bus is scary enough
Malthouse Theatre
by
ABR Arts 02 December 2022

Monsters

A bus is scary enough
Malthouse Theatre
by
ABR Arts 02 December 2022
Josie Weise, Alison Whyte, Samantha Hines in Monsters (photograph by Pia Johnson)
Josie Weise, Alison Whyte, Samantha Hines in Monsters (photograph by Pia Johnson)

Is there any trope more ubiquitous to the horror genre than the jump scare? A scream cuts through a loaded silence; a flitting shadow hosts a monstrous threat. It’s a trope often traced back to 1945’s Cat People. In the film, a scare comes in the form of an errant bus. Known as the ‘Lewton Bus’ after producer Val Lewton, the term is now a kind of genre shorthand, referring to a sequence that gleefully teases its audience with the possibility of an approaching shock. A character, face barely lit, walks down a dark street flinching at shadows. The sound of their rushed footsteps increase in pace and volume. Suddenly the roar of a bus breaks the tension. Suspense results from a delicate harmony struck between lighting, mise en scène and sound. We never see any monster, nor do we need to. A bus is scary enough.

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