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, Shafou.com, 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.
The beginnings
Screamers have been around since at least 1996. Screamers slowly started to make surface on the Internet in the 2000s. The first screamer to be uploaded on YouTube was an advertisement that aired on German TV for an energy drink called K-fee (Kaffee). 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 of people having heart attacks. 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 guy saying boo softly or a guy with a monster mask laughing.
