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.

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.