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Quieter Than Silence: Difference between revisions

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Quieter Than Silence (view source)

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* In the middle of [[Michael Jackson]]'s "Smooth Criminal" video, Michael raises his hand and causes a skylight to shatter, at which point the music stops. The crowd inexplicably starts moaning, then chants "Annie are you okay?" until the music starts up again.
* Prior to the final duel in ''[[Sanjuro]]'', it becomes completely silent as the duelists stare each other down. The eventual strike is punctuated by the [[Scare Chord]] as indicated above.
* In the movie ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight (Film)1408|Fourteen Oh Eight]]'', the sound of a baby crying on the other side of a wall builds and echoes, deafening Enslin until - it stops. Along with all other noise in the scene. We (and he) can't even hear Enslin trying to call out.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On [[Gerry Anderson]] shows like ''[[Captain Scarlet]]'', ''[[UFO]]'', ''[[Space: 1999]]'', the airless silence of space or the moon's surface is conveyed by a slow droning sound like a cello or double-bass.
* Twice in the [[The Nth Doctor|Eleventh]] [[Doctor Who]]'s run, total [[Arc Words|silence falls]]. First, at the end of [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E06 The Vampires of Venice|The Vampires of Venice]], when ''all'' the sounds of Venice cut out, like the birds, the waves, and the people, then at the end of [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E12 The Pandorica Opens|The Pandorica Opens]] (including the ''music'' this time). According to [[Word of God]], these two episodes actually take place around the same time, so it's actually ''the same silence''.
* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy]]'' episode "The Body", there was no background music in the entire episode. This led to a lot of silent scenes, which made the episode much more depressing than it probably would have been if there had been music.
* [[The Walking Dead]] loves this trope. If it's not actually silent, then the air hums with the call of cicadas, to emphasize that there's nothing ''human'' to hear.
 
== [[Theatre]] ==
* A sound engineer colleague was asked to provide a "pin drop" silence for the opening scene. The solution? White noise, played throughout the theatre's speaker system and slowwwwwly raised in volume over 10 minutes. When the sound was cut your ears popped with the sudden silence
* In the musical ''[[Les Misérables (Theatretheatre)|Les Misérables]]'' the only time the pit does not play is during {{spoiler|Gavroche's death scene}}.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** The others also use this, but to a lesser amount.
* ''[[Gears of War]]'' uses this trope. The sounds of you moving and some ambient sounds in the Locust tunnels help convey it, as does the line "It's quiet... too quiet."
* [[Batman: Arkham Asylum]] also uses this trope by having Batman make some noise and having music at times.
* ''[[Quake II (Video Game)|Quake II]]'' is much scarier without its industrial metal CD soundtrack. Likewise, although ''[[Quake (Video Gameseries)|Quake 1]]'' has dark ambient music, it is best played without the music (only background noises) and with the lights off for maximum [[Nightmare Fuel]] effect.
* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series uses this at points, such as right before you encounter the Licker.
* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'''s Slimy Spring Galaxy uses a very minimalistic background track, while the rest of the game's levels were timed to music. Well, even the insignificant tones get turned off, ending with nothing but birds chirping to finish the serene effect. Cue finale immediately afterwards.
* Several levels in ''[[Medal of Honor]]: Allied Assault'', such as The Communications Blackout, are entirely devoid of music until you complete the main objective.
* The middle third of the [[Battleship Raid]] level in ''[[R -Type]] Final'' lacks music, and with the (intentional?) slowdown it becomes even creepier.
* Played straight in ''Dead Space'' with all the portions of the game where Isaac is in the vacuum of space. This makes it even more chilling when necromorphs attack you out of nowhere with no audio cues.
* Used for dramatic effect in the first section of the final dungeon in ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]''.
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