5 Horror storylines Bray Wyatt should be booked in

#2 Jump scares

Jump scares when used at the right time are an incredibly effective storytelling device in the world of sports and entertainment

Jump scares

Let’s change tracks here; go from paranormal creatures and time travel to jump scares.

Jump scares are one of the most effective yet oft-derided horror techniques characterized by a sudden change in the visuals accompanied by intense sound effects that serve to startle the audience and thereby scare them.

Several movies have been the recipient of a considerable amount of criticism for excessive use of jump scares, as a certain section of horror fans and critics claim that the horror content creators’ overreliance on jump scares is nothing but a façade to hide their lack of creativity or cover up for a boring story.

Pro wrestling is no stranger to jump scares, as evidenced by its use during The Undertaker’s feuds over the years. Most notably the Deadman’s apparitions and resultant jump scares in his rivalry with “The Legend Killer” Randy Orton back in 2005, were some of the best Jump scares ever used in the sports-entertainment industry.

The Undertaker beat Orton at WrestleMania 21 in April of that year but later lost a 2-on-1 Handicap Casket Match to Randy and his father Bob Orton at No Mercy in October of the same year after the Ortons successfully locked the Phenom into the Casket.

Over the course of his feud with the Ortons, The Undertaker would appear in the washroom mirror, out of Caskets, and in other such places as an apparition to haunt Randy and Bob Orton.

Bray Wyatt and jump scares

What made The Undertaker’s jump scares so very effective during his rivalry with the Ortons is that even though they didn’t scare the audience and in fact, the audience were siding with ‘Taker, the sudden apparitions and the fear which they seemed to instill in the villainous Orton father-son duo were an excellent plot device.

This enabled the WWE to tell a riveting story wherein a paranormal entity i.e. The Deadman did battle against the treacherous albeit human villains (Randy and Bob Orton).

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” – HP Lovecraft

On that note, the WWE can take “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt’s utilization of the fear of the unknown as a weapon, to the next level, by making other Superstars who aren’t even involved in a storyline with The Fiend see him as a ghostly apparition in the most unexpected moments over the course of the weekly SmackDown TV broadcast.

The message Wyatt can send through this is that his brand of terror is incredibly far-reaching and unexplainable (well, unexplainable because he’s scaring random Superstars despite the fact that they’re not involved in a feud with him).

The very reason behind The Fiend terrorizing them is unknown, which in turn makes the apparitions scarier. Up next, we finally examine why The Fiend shouldn’t beat his Wyatt Family leader persona, besides also looking at his feud with Braun Strowman…