What makes a voice sound scary

Three things do most of the work: quiet delivery, a slower pace, and a room that seems too big. The speech model is asked for a whispering, frightened delivery. The browser then slows the audio by about 12 percent, which also lowers the pitch slightly, and adds a long reverb tail built from decaying noise.

The echo is the part that sells it. It makes a bedroom sentence sound like it was said in an empty hallway.

Writing lines that work

Scary lines are quiet lines. Say the frightening thing calmly: "The call is coming from inside the house" works better than a shouted warning. Short sentences with gaps leave room for the echo to ring out. Avoid exclamation marks; they push the voice toward excitement.

Lines about ordinary things going slightly wrong are easier to pull off than gore. A door that opens by itself, a message from a number that does not exist, a child humming in an empty room.

Where people use it

Halloween videos and haunted-house signs, a creepy narrator for a short horror story, a spooky voicemail for a friend who likes that sort of thing, tabletop game sessions that need an ominous prompt, and trailers for fan-made horror games.

What it will not do

It does not imitate any horror film character or mask, and prompts that name one are refused. It also will not produce a convincing copy of a real person for a scare, and it is not meant for threats or harassment. See the Terms.

Example lines to try

These lines were written for this style and tend to sound right straight away:

"Please do not look at the mirror. It already knows your name."
"The lights are off. They were on a minute ago."
"I left a note in the attic. Please do not read it out loud."
"Somebody is sitting in the empty chair."

Quick fixes if it sounds wrong

If it sounds more silly than scary, take out words that sound like jokes and remove any exclamation marks. If the echo swallows the end of a sentence, add a last short word such as "now" or "tonight" so the tail has something to hang on.

Using the clip in your project

The download is a WAV file with the echo tail already baked in, so leave a second or two of silence after it in your edit instead of cutting it short. Pair it with low room tone or a quiet drone, and keep your picture dark. For a haunted-house sign or party speaker, play it on a loop with a pause of ten seconds between plays; the silence is part of the effect. Avoid using it on people who have not agreed to a scare.

Scary Voice Generator