Acousmêtre
Acousmêtre (CHION 2009, 466) is the noun given to an invisible character that can only be identified aurally—mostly through his voice. Acousmêtres tend to be unsettling, because they cannot be tied to a physical source; ghosts, voices "from the beyond," etc, are typical acousmêtres, justifying the popularity of acousmêtres in horror cinema.
As Michel Chion explains (466), the acousmêtre is usually granted powers such as: ubiquity (it can be everywhere); panopticism (it is all-seeing); omniscience (it knows everything); and omnipotence (it is all powerful).
The title-character in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) is a typical acousmêtre: it is allmighty, all-seeing, omniscient, and omnipotent, and cannot be tied to a precise physical body—until Dorothy's dog, Toto, reveals the truth by unveiling the curtain. This scene is exemplary of the main danger that threatens the acousmêtre: once embodied, it loses all its powers.
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