Sometimes it’s what you hear but not see that can really give you the willies. This is especially true in movies where one’s imagined fears are almost always worse than the reality.

Here are just a few of my favorite films where the voice, human or inhuman, and its many variations (breathing, coughing, snoring, laughing, crying, singing, humming or speaking) are the most disturbing aspect of the film.      EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962)

http://www.trailersfromhell.com/trailers/102?auto=1

The memorable opening sequence, underscored by Henry Mancini’s chilling theme song (watch it without the commentary on the Trailers from Hell website above), sets the tone as Lee Remick is shown driving her car at night against the backdrop of San Francisco. She pulls into her driveway and garage but senses something is not right as soon as the garage door closes behind her. She hears something and as she moves toward the sound in the darkness we hear what sounds like the labored breathing of an asthmatic. Suddenly Remick is grabbed from behind by a man we can’t see but we get a distinct impression of him from his raspy, threatening voice as he holds Remick close and speaks in her ear. “No, I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to talk to you…I’ve already killed twice so I won’t hesitate to do it again. Do we understand each other?”

Ross Martin, who plays the psychopath in question, is probably best known as James West’s sidekick, Artemus Gordon, in the cult TV series, The Wild, Wild West,  but in terms of film roles, this might be his finest hour. His chilling voice is the stuff of nightmares and, as usual, he’s creepier when we can’t clearly see him….except for that completely freaky scene in the women’s restroom where he’s disguised as a stooped-over, elderly woman  who reveals himself to a very shocked Lee Remick.

OBJECTIVE, BURMA! (1945)

One of the more grimly realistic war films of the forties, this Raoul Walsh action adventure starring Errol Flynn has a tense nighttime sequence in which a battalion of paratroopers are hunkered down in their foxholes in Japanese occupied territory. Even though the foxholes are just a few feet apart from each other, it is difficult to clearly see. The sounds of the jungle at night mostly obscure – but not completely – the sounds of the advancing Japanese soldiers, sliding along on their bellies toward the foxholes. In an unnerving real time sequence that lasts almost ten minutes, the American troops wait on pins and needles for the inevitable. First a land mine goes off nearby, killing a Japanese soldier and we know the paratroopers are surrounded. Then a soldier hears a rustling in the tropical foilage and asks, “Who’s that?” A calming voice asks, “Take it easy pal. Are you ok?” The relieved soldier drops his guard and replies, “Yeah, I’m ok. Guess I’m getting a little jumpy.” Then we see the Japanese soldier quickly stab the paratrooper and slither into his foxhole. A soldier in the neighboring foxhole senses trouble and asks, “Hollis, are you ok?” A voice answers, “Yeah, I’m ok. Where are you Joe?” The paratrooper suddenly freezes, realizing That’s not Hollis’s voice, and quietly takes a grenade from his belt and tosses it in the direction of the enemy soldier, saying, “Over here. Here I am sweetheart.” As the Japanese soldier crawls toward the foxhole, the grenade explodes beneath him and the paratrooper remarks sarcastically, “By the way, my name ain’t Joe.” The idea of someone trying to imitate the voice of a person you know in order to lure you into their trap is always effectively sinister and it’s brilliantly employed here. Watch the sequence on YouTube below.

THE HAUNTING (1963)

I was always a bigger fan of Shirley Jackson’s original novel, The Haunting of Hill House, than the Robert Wise film version but I still consider the movie one of the best ghost stories conceived for the screen. And part of its power is due to the film’s spooky sound design. One of the most unforgettable sequences occurs when Eleanor (Julie Harris) hears voices coming from the next room in the dead of night and as they grow louder it sounds like a small child is being terrorized by an angry, abusive brute. The fact that Eleanor appears to understand what is being said – and we can’t – makes it more disturbing, especially in lieu of her agonized reaction to it.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

The scene toward the end of the film when Scout (Mary Badham), dressed as a giant ham, and her brother Jem (Phillip Alford), take a short cut through the woods at night, after a school costume party never fails to produce goosebumps. As they get deeper into the woods, they hear someone following them and the film effectively registers their panic by only showing the feet of the person following them and the frightened faces of the children, particularly Scout who can barely see through her confining costume. Then, just before the assailant attacks the children, he emits a wild cry. The sound of it is so depraved, so sick that it has stayed with me for years.

THE INNOCENTS (1961)

Like The Haunting, this gothic tale of the supernatural achieves some of its most frightening moments through scenes where we can see and hear what the protagonist – Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) – is experiencing, even though no one else seems aware of it.  The scene where Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde) suddenly looms up in the darkness outside the drawing room window and comes up to the window pane to stare malevolently at Miss Giddens is one of the famous “gotcha” moments in the movie. But I think I prefer the more subtle and disturbing sequence in the study where Miss Giddens is confronted with the ghost of Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop) whose mournful crying really does sound like a voice from beyond the grave and it’s truly haunting.

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960)

This is one of those thrillers that scared me at an impressionable age but is now laughable, especially Doris Day’s overwrought performance as the wife of a wealthy London businessman (Rex Harrison) who is being terrorized by a mysterious stalker who phones her incessantly or calls out to her in the fog. The stalker has an eerie, high pitched voice that sounds like some crazy cartoon character who wandered into the wrong movie. It’s certainly no match for Ross Martin’s heavy, asthmatic wheeze in Experiment in Terror. Still, when Doris Day, cornered and alone in the fog, cries out “Who are you?” and the voice answers, “You’ll know….just before I kill you,” it does make you wonder if this cuckoo bird is serious. Maybe a voice that sounds comical but actually makes good on its twisted promise is the scariest one of all. Watch the trailer at http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?cid=78241

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

People who talk to themselves – and I don’t mean the ones who are wearing wireless headsets – are always a little disconcerting and might as well wear a placard that says “I’m a little batty.” And when the person is a schizophrenic serial killer with multiple personalities….well, the more the merrier. This entertaining little B-movie thriller from Bob Clark that deservedly earned a cult following has several virtues that attest to its endurance and one of them is the fact that the maniac on the loose is never revealed. We never learn who he is or where he came from but we do get to hear his insane rantings, mutterings and Tourette’s Syndrome-like explosions of profanity – all of which make him more unpredictably looney.    

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)

As much as I love Robert Mitchum’s intense, frightening performance as the vengeful and cunning ex-con Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962), I think his performance as Harry Powell, the homicidal religious fanatic in The Night of the Hunter, is even more diabolical because his evil has a mythic quality about it, one that often triumphs over good. And the scenes of him in hot pursuit of his two young child victims, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), are truly nightmarish in the manner of a Grimm’s fairy tale. But I think Mitchum is even creepier in some of the quieter moments of the film, especially when John, who has taken refuge in a barn with his sister, is awakened by the sound of Powell’s voice singing in the distance as he relentlessly follows the children’s trail in the moonlight.

SUSPIRIA (1977)

Maybe I should have called this post “Scary Wheezing in the Dark” because here’s another involving labored breathing.  One of the more ominous scenes in Dario Argento’s day-glo, psychedelic horror fest occurs when ballerina-in-training Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) is trying to get some shut eye in the Tans Academy gymnasium after a maggot infestation in the dorm rooms. She and the other students are in bed when they are joined by another “sleeper,” whose malevolent presence only Suzy seems to see and hear. And we are also privy to the sight of the Black Queen’s shadow through a hanging bedsheet as she lies down amongst the girls and her deep wheezing fills the room. Guess she just wanted to be close to her girls. A nice macabre touch. Watch the US trailer version on Youtube below.  

THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

Here’s another one from childhood that taps into the deeper recesses of our imagination. One scene, in particular, that still fascinates is toward the end when the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion approach the witch’s castle at night to rescue Dorothy and we can hear the strange chant of the witch’s guards getting louder and louder as the trio get closer to the castle. What are they chanting? What language is that? It sounds like “Goree-o” but I’ve never seen the words spelled out. Like the scene featuring the approach of the flying monkeys, the sound of that chant in the distance always produces a feeling of unreasonable apprehension and dread.

I’m sure I’m missing a few more key films with scary voices in the dark so feel free to chime in with other titles that rate the same company as Experiment in Terror and the rest.