Suspense, something vital filmmakers, and authors need in their stories, but how does someone include suspense in their stories that gets the audience on the edge of their seats and begging for more? In the essay, “Let Em’ Play God” by Alfred Hitchcock, he states that letting the audience know everything while the characters don’t create suspense. Even though some suspense doesn’t let the audience know anything, real suspense involves the audience being aware of everything that occurs. In the essay, it states, “The fact that the audience watches actors go blithely through an atmosphere that is loaded with evil makes for real suspense.” (6) This shows that whenever the audience watches the characters don't know anything that’s going on
Suspense is the build up of anxiety or excitement in a story. It is an incredibly useful literary element. People like to read suspenseful stories, and/or watch suspenseful shows and movies because suspense gets their hearts racing. Suspense in movies and books might keep the audience intrigued and make them wonder what will happen next. People also like suspense because they might like trying to figure out what will happen on their own. This will keep the audience intrigued because they want to know how close they were to the exact answer. There are many stories that display suspense and many different authors who wrote them. One book that used suspense was Cujo, by Stephen King. Cujo was a dog that was bitten by a bat. He then turns into
In Dahl’s short story and in Jacob’s short story, both depict suspense through tone and description. For example, in the “The Landlady”, the narrator stated, “I stuff all my little pets.” This example reveals suspense by providing the landlady killed and stuffed her pets. Furthermore,
Josh Pachter’s “Invitation to a Murder” uses passage of time, inference gaps, and foreshadowing to add suspense. Dramatic irony, inference gaps and red herrings create suspense in “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses mystery elements of many possible suspects, accumulation of clues and hidden evidence as catalysts for suspense. All three authors cleverly created anticipation in their work with mystery elements that kept the potential to hold captive their reader’s attention until the very last
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Alfred Hitchcock’s films not only permanently scar the brains of his viewers but also addict them to his suspense. Hitchcock’s films lure you in like a trap, he tells the audience what the characters don’t know and tortures them with the anticipation of what’s going to happen.
...he chessboard. In this poisoning scene, the audience’s psychological changes are strongly tied to the elements that constituted by Hitchcock. As a master of suspense, he puts the audience in an extreme intense condition through the whole scene, but not the audience only get shock in one particular moment. When the Mrs. Sebastian says the plan should practice without anyone’s suspicious. In fact, the audience is the one who actually suspicious the most in the game of Hitchcock. The reason why we are the one in most suspense can explain by the audience could anticipate the answer before hand, but the character in the scene does not know it. The process is a “torture” to some audiences, because it is similar to the theory that a prisoner might be executed just in five seconds, but the process of waiting for the execution maybe five minutes, five days or five years.
Suspense is a 1913 film that portrays the story of a tramp intruding into a family’s home, where a mother takes care of her child while her husband is away. The plot is a common one that had been used previous times before the film’s release, such as in The Lonely Villa (1909). However, through taking advantage of the single frame shot, the filmmakers were able to create a masterful aesthetic of two separate stories that turn a basic plot into a complex story. The film created an inventive way of illustrating stories within cinema by allowing the audience the chance to consume more narrative in less time within just one take.
talked about show the real importance of the story. What we can learn from these suspenses are that it makes a story get attention from the readers and a better
In Don’t Look Behind You the text states, “ Her cheeks and chin were darker than the rest of her face, and her eyebrows were a different color than her hair.” This shows that as April was looking at the maid through the peephole she noticed unlikely features. This created suspense because as April describes what this person looks like you can imagine the person and notice that they aren’t who they say they are. In The Hitchhiker it says, “Death of her oldest son, Ronald…? Hey- what is this? What number is this?” This demonstrates that when Ronald Adams is calling home he is told that he is dead. This creates suspense because I can imagine all of the confusion he is having and how he may be a little scared as well. In Don’t Look Behind You the author states, “The muzzle of a pistol was now pressed to the window.” This illustrates that April was in a tight situation and didn’t want to get shot. This creates suspense because it was a life or death situation for April. One wrong decision and she could get killed. Therefore, suspense is created in the two stories, The Hitchhiker and Don’t Look Behind You because of
2. In paragraph form and with reference to the story, discuss the role of fear in creating suspense.
Psycho is a suspense-horror film written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was loosely adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 suspense novel, Psycho. A majority of the movie was filmed in 1960 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Psycho is about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Arizona who steals $40,000 from her employer’s client. She takes that money and drives off to California to meet her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in order to start a new life. After a long drive, she pulls off the main highway and ends up taking refuge at an isolated motel owned and managed by a deranged Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, symbols, character and point of view are three literary aspects used in the film to manipulate the audience’s emotions and to build suspense in the film.
Suspense is a key factor to the story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. According to the Oxford Dictionary, suspense is the state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Poe uses the senses to bring the reader aware of the building suspense. He does this by telling the reader about the ominous setting of all the chambers, especially the seventh chamber. The sound of the grandfather clock, sending sinister shivers throughout the party goers each hour, keeps them on their toes. Finally, the fast-paced chase of the intruder and the Prince build to the suspense at the final moments of the story.
suspense to the play and to leave the reader to wonder who will live through this and who will
In almost every story, suspense is a key in making the story more interesting. Suspense is an aura of anxiety that can build up using different ways. When using suspense in a story, there are different ways to apply it effectively. Different elements of suspense include foreshadowing, imagery and action. In the landlady, atmosphere was used and in the lady or the tiger it used action. In the telltale heart imagery was used.
Fear and suspense are introduced and maintained during the play’s developing plot which makes the reader make predictions about what may happen next in the play because the play never directly implies who the victim of the murder is and keeps us on the edge of our seat to figure out what happens next and who the victim is. The text states, “FIRST MAN: Okay. You know the address. At eleven o’clock the private patrolman goes around to the the bar on Second Avenue for a beer. Be sure that all the lights downstairs are out. There should be only one light visible from the street. At eleven fifteen a subway train crosses the bridge. It makes a noise in case her window is open and she should scream,” (Fletcher, paragraph 24). This quote produces fear and suspense because we are finding out clues to who the victim of the murder is and the details match sufficiently, more than to be a “coincidence”. The quote provided makes the reader infer that Mrs. Stevenson is the one being murdered because of the details that matched up: ie. the one light lit in