Name for loud special effects "crash"?

[katdad]

We all know the much overused technique of getting a cheap thrill in horror or suspense movies, where there's a sudden "smash" of music combined with a quick flash of a scary face or similar. Sometimes the female screams, too. But the main sound is orchestral.

There's a particular term used to describe this effect. It's something like "crash" or "smash" or another word.

I'm not talking about the older term "bus effect", first used by Jaques Tourneau in his "Cat People", where the gal is being chased thru the park by the panther girl, and suddenly a bus appears and screeches its pneumatic brakes. This term was later shortened to "busses" or just "a bus" as a particular movie effect -- the sudden jumping out of a cat, for example.

But the newer term is what I'm trying to remember. Is is "screech" or "slam"?

[katdad]

Found it myself. It's called the "startle" effect. Usually it's the typical "cat in the closet" scene, accompanied by a loud crash of percussion instruments in the movie score. Can be effective as you know, but it's waaaay overused and therefore becomes somewhat annoying in movies where the director should know better, and should not resort to cheap thrills.

Yes, the original "Cat People" (Val Lewton) had the first "bus effect" startle scene, but the term has morphed from a "bus" to "startle".