Summary Of Suspense In Stranger Things

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Suspense is a genre and a technique that builds up tension to engage the watchers. The genre features literature that uses the suspense technique. The technique of suspense is when you use suspense elements to make the audience on edge and nervous. People like to watch/read suspenseful things for many reasons. One reason is it helps them escape from reality. Also people like to imagine themselves in those situations with the comfort of know that it isn't real. Lastly it helps people take themselves out of there real life stressful situation and put themselves in a fictional one. Suspense is the most effective when the audience cares about the characters. This is done by making the characters relatable. Suspense has evolved through the years. …show more content…

The opening scene of Stranger Things is a great example of how to effectively build suspense in a T.V. film because it does a great job on blending the suspense techniques together. The four main suspense techniques that were used were foreshadowing, dilemma, mood, and foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing is when the author sets up the reader to have a clue of what's going on, but not know everything. To use it effectively you must give enough hints that the reader assume knowledge about what will happen but not enough that it spoils it. The first example of foreshadowing in Stranger Things are the lights flickering in the lab. This scene depicts a scientist running frantically from an unknown monster. From this scene we can infer that when lights flicker the monster will be coming soon. This happens in two more places. The first place it is confirmed is when the Dustin, Lucas, and Will are leaving Michael's house. After the three boys leave Michael's garage lights flicker. Michael shakes it off like it is no big deal, but the viewer is put on edge and must wait for when the monster who has earned the name demogorgon, to attack. The next time lights flicker is when Will is riding home by himself and his bike …show more content…

Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters do not. Suspense relies on it in a few ways. The first way is that it makes the audience on edge because they know will happen and the characters are going into a situation blind. The second way suspense relies on dramatic irony is that without dramatic irony it would be all jumpscares and no drawn out suspense. Foreshadowing and dramatic irony go hand in hand. Foreshadowing sets up dramatic irony. Then the dramatic irony makes the foreshadowing suspenseful. An example of this is the lights flickering. The lights flickering in the lab sets up the foreshadowing and dramatic irony. It sets up the dramatic irony by showing the audience that when the lights flicker the monster is near. This is dramatic irony because the audience knows that the lights flickering is a signal whereas the character do not. Another example of foreshadowing and dramatic irony going hand in hand is the sign for the lab. This is dramatic irony because the viewers know what happened at the lab whereas the characters have no clue what is happening and still think it is an normal energy lab. Dramatic irony also helps the mood. It affects the mood by making the audience anxious. This is because the viewer knows what it going to happen and does

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