Not in the usual sense, no. There's one spot where someone suddenly jumps out at you, but after you get your breath back it's actually pretty funny. Personally, I don't mind jumping a bit if I get to laugh after.
There are a couple of ways you can die -- excuse me, make a fatal error, as the game says. But if that happens, the game gives you the option to return to the game just before things went wrong and try it again.