Enterteinment in Films with Suspense and Other Plotmaking Devices

The one important thing that all films should have in common, is that they should entertain the viewer. Whether it be romance, action, horror, or sci-fi; the average movie goer wants to forget about the real world and indulge themselves into the world created by the filmmaker. The focus of this paper will be shifted toward the horror/thriller genre and how suspense is used as a method of storytelling. Conflict is important to a film, as it allows the characters in a story to develop and react to things happening around them. This allows the viewer to engage with the story and wonder what will happen to the characters next. Suspense is used to build the anticipation of the viewer, putting them at the edge of their seat while watching the film. A smart movie can manipulate the audience’s knowledge, allowing more time for certain aspects of the film to be processed or thought about.

Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be the master of suspense when it comes to filmmaking. He believes that in order to create good suspense, a film should suggest something and let the audience figure it out. When something is revealed to the audience at the same time as the characters in the film, the audience has less time to react to what is going on. However, if the audience is revealed something that the characters don’t know, then the film is creating an anticipation that forces the audience to use their own imagination. This anticipation allows the audience to wonder what will happen next, allowing their own fears rise and create a stronger emotional response. Hitchcock once said “Mystery is when the spectator knows less than the characters in the movie. Suspense is when the spectator knows more than the characters in the movie”. This is an interesting concept because most people would believe that suspense would be built by hiding something from the audience, yet its the exact opposite. When the viewer already has the knowledge of what will happen, it generates apprehension and anxiety that makes the viewer feel so involved. It puts the audience in a helpless state of power, as they want to help the characters on screen with no hope of actually being able to do it. Many films use suspense in order to tell the story and engage views, the film Inglorious bastards is a good example of this. The intensity of the suspense is equal to the viewer’s emotional investment in what’s going on. There must be an emotional significance the anticipation of events. The director Quentin Tarantino views suspense as a rubber band, the farther you can stretch the rubber band without breaking it, the more suspenseful it is. In other words, the longer you can hold the suspense in a scene the more intense the suspense becomes. In the opening scene of the movie, Tarantino stretches the scene and the suspense, thus creating a stronger emotional attachment from the audience. You know what’s going to happen, but you want to believe it won’t.

When making a thriller, the trick is to bring the audience behind the protagonist’s eyes. The audience shouldn’t be told to have empathy for someone but should want to have empathy because they are experience the same emotions. The director should be conscious of what the audience knows, feels, and think will happen. The audience should be brought to a point where they think they know what’s happening, and right when then get there they get reeled back into the unknow. Music and sound is a good way to build the suspense in a scene. The music in a scene can help build momentum to the pivotal moment in the scene allowing it to resonate more with the audience. The juxtaposition between sound and the lack of sound can help accentuate the tension in a scene. The lack of sound can be more important than the presence of sound in some cases. Silence can be used to induce a certain response in the audience and create a more visceral response to the sounds that are provided. Pauses in dialogue can give the audience time to reflect and think about what was said or time to question what the result will be of said dialogue.

Like mentioned earlier, duration of a scene can drastically change how tense the scene becomes, the same can be said for the length of a shot. When a shot holds on a character’s reaction or response to and event, it can help the audience understand the character’s thought process. The best way to show something to an audience is by showing them a lot with a little. A character’s motivation can be shown by something as simple as holding the shot on said character while they contemplate the situation. The timing of the scene helps build the suspense of the situation the characters find themselves in. You give the audience time to react to what is happening.
It’s important to keep the audience involved with the story. At the center of an interesting story is a rising conflict. This how a storyteller can take the audience along for an adventure. If the story is crafted with interesting opposing forces, the viewers will go along with it. If the viewer relates to the character that they see on screen, they can put themselves in to the situations they are watching. The main protagonist needs a powerful opposition, something that stands between them and their goal. The antagonist should be put a in a position of power, the audience should be rooting for the protagonist to overcome the overwhelming odds they face. Establishing consequences within the story is tied in with creating immediacy for the characters. As the viewers get more involved with your characters, they need to know that something terrible will happen if the main character does not reach their goal.

Building the audience’s expectation is important to creating suspension, give the audience the feeling that something will occur. If the audience expects trouble, they will get a feel that something bad will happen. Its this feeling of anxiety that is at the root of suspense, you need to invoke emotion in order to build the attachment to the characters and the situation. If the viewer cares about the characters on screen, then they will care about what the character is fighting for. The lenses chosen can affect how the audience views the scene. The visual field a is key component when creating cinematic suspense. How much depth is places in a shot is important, especially when the suspense is built around an environment. For example, if scene transition from a wide angle 24mm to a 50mm, the difference will cause the viewers to pay closer attention while giving them view to important details. The difference in lenses used could help the viewer stay connected longer.