Screamer

Screamer

The term screamer, also referred to as a jumpscare, is used to describe a game, video, website, or program, that makes the user concentrate on the screen, and then has an unexpected change to scare the viewer(s). Some examples of screamers are The Maze by Jeremy Winterrowd, Anne.jpg, Ghost Caught on Tape, and the series of K-fee advertisements. Screamers often have a scary image and a loud scream, per example, Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist movie. In some cases they have startling or disgusting images, and these are called shock sites. They can also be considered screamers since they do surprise the user.

A screenshot from the K-fee auto commercial.

The beginnings

Screamers have been around since as far as the early 1970s, and slowly started to make surface on the Internet in the 2000s. The first screamer to be aired on television was an advertisement that aired on German television for an energy drink called K-fee (pronounced Kay-fee). At the beginning, a car drives through a field with relaxing music. Then the car gets hidden behind the trees and a zombie appears and screams at the camera.

Eight other ads like this were aired on television before being banned because the company was getting complaints by people having heart diseases. After that, the company made new ads for the Lite version of their product, where the screamer was replaced with either a teddy bear, a man saying boo softly or a guy with a monster mask laughing.

Popular Culture

Because of their reputation as clever trolling tools and pranks, screamers have been featured quite reccently in works of fiction. In the Cartoon Network animated series The Amazing World of Gumball , in the episode named "The Internet", Gumball and Darwin appear randomly browsing the net while watching videos. Among these videos, they come across what is implied to be the original K-Fee ad with the car and the zombie. Gumball watches it, commenting on the white car driving through the hills when suddenly a scream (similar to those in the commercials but slightly different) is heard, causing him to have a hilarious, scared reaction which gets recorded on camera. The rest of the episode involves Gumball trying to get rid of the video about his reaction, which has given him unwanted fame. In the episode "The Spoiler", when Anais wants Gumball to take her to a horror movie, Gumball pulls a prank on both her and the audience by having the screen suddenly cut to a picture of a real-life piranha with its mouth fully open alongside a screeching noise. The screen then cuts to Annais white with shock while Gumball sports a smug grin.

In the Gravity Falls season 1 episode, "Summerween" after many failed attempts at scaring two kids who have been coming to the Mystery Shack for trick 'n' treat, Grunkle Stan asks them what they find scary. One of the children shows him a video in his smartphone which says "Watch closely". It then shows a cute kitten, which is abruptly cut by a screaming demonic face, scaring Stan and causing him to have a nervous fit.

Jumpscares are the main bulk of Scott Cawthon's well known videogame franchise, Five Nights at Freddy's.

Reactions

Screamers have caused a new trend to make surface. People have started to record themselves or someone else's reactions to these websites, and post them on social media and video sharing websites like YouTube. Reaction videos are widely known across the Internet.