Category: Suspense

In the short story “Gore” by Sarah Ellis, the author makes the atmosphere very suspenseful mostly through the use of literary devices. The readers can empathize with the protagonist, Amy because of her dramatic acting which escalates the tension within the reader. Amy, the main character is not very fond of her twin brother Lucas who is the complete opposite of her and one day steals her book then locks himself in the bathroom.

Amy is extremely intrigued by the book which is why she tries to get the book by pretending that she is getting abducted by strange beings. Lucas eventually ends up believing the figment of her imagination through her impersonation skills and gets out of the bathroom. In “Gore”, Ellis effectively uses many different techniques to get the readers into believing the illusion that Amy made up in her mind about supernatural beings. The use of techniques also delivers Amy’s emotions to the reader to build up suspense. All of this gets the readers hooked into the story and help them decipher the situation distinctly. This can be seen through the often use of imagery and foreshadowing.

There is plenty of imagery provided by Ellis for the readers to have a better grasp of what is going on. She extends the part where Amy is with strange beings and makes it descriptive to keep readers on their toes. One of the examples of imagery is when the supernatural beings get in their house and start to feed Amy disturbing food, while, Lucas is still in the bathroom. When Amy describes the stranger’s scent and says, “The fetid stench. The noxious reek. It is the smell of something dead, sweet and rotten.” (Ellis 3). This quote infers that the scent of the aliens is disgusting and unpleasant to understand Amy’s feelings clearly. Her descriptive words to describe the alien’s odour makes the readers reflect emotionally on her feelings and if it is true. Another example is when the aliens grab her wrist and pulled her away from the doorknob that she is holding onto and says to come with them. Amy describes there voice as strange as says that “The voice as dry and white as paper” (Ellis 2). This quote helps the audience understand that their voice sounds weird and feel like they are in this situation along with Amy experiencing it themselves as well.

All the examples that are given above appeal to the audience’s five senses because of Ellis’s word choice, thereby making the reader feel like they are experiencing the situation themselves.

Imagine being able to control the life of someone with a razor, just a bit more pressure on the razor and another life will end. Suspenseful scenarios like such are often created by skilled authors, like the one that is created by Hernando Tellez in the riveting short story “Just Lather, That’s All”. Therefore, it is undeniable that suspense techniques are used effectively in the short story “Just Lather, That’s All” by Hernando Tellez because they develop plot and characters within the story.

First, Hernando Tellez uses suspense in order to advance the plot, grabbing the attention of the readers with its conflicts. One example of this is when the narrator struggles to decide on whether or not he should kill Captain Torres, stating “Yes, I was secretly a rebel, but I was also a conscientious barber, and proud of the preciseness of my profession” (Tellez 2). By revealing the narrator’s thoughts, Hernando Tellez successfully portrays person vs self conflict as the narrator decides if he should kill Captain Torres. The readers get engaged in the story as they are eager to find out what will happen next, their curiosity compels them to keep reading. By revealing the way that the narrator considers himself a “conscientious barber”, Hernando Tellez successfully foreshadows the outcome of the conflict because the narrator has a strong motivation for not killing Captain Torres (2).

Next, Hernando Tellez effectively uses the delay of information as a suspense technique in order to develop characters within the story. For example, as Captain Torres is leaving, he tells the narrator, “They told me that you’d kill me. I came to find out. But killing isn’t easy. You can take my word for it” (4). For almost the entirety of the story, Captain Torres is described as a cruel “executioner”, a fearsome man who hunts down the rebels and executes them for entertainment (3).

Then, at the end, by saying “killing isn’t easy”, it shows that Captain Torres feels guilty for all the people that he has killed and it shows that there is still conscience in him (4). This makes Captain Torres a round and dynamic character because multiple character traits of him are revealed and he changes dramatically throughout the story.

In conclusion, it is truly indisputable that Hernando Tellez uses suspense effectively in the short story “Just Lather, That’s All”, by engaging the readers with the conflicts and adding colour to the characters. With its surprise twist ending and the cliffhanger at the end, it truly is a memorable story as the readers are left wondering what the fate will be for the narrator.

This essay explores the way that practitioners have tried to change the way their audience relates to their environment, focusing on the techniques used by the company PLAYDEAD through its two games ‘Inside’ and ‘Limbo’. The company PLAYDEAD, founded bout Danish Producers Arnt Jensen and Dino Patti, have successfully drawn in players through their illustrated ery design and soundtrack of the game. The visuals reference common periods throughout history of film and the storyline has many links to childhood fear to which many of the audience can empathise with. The visuals in the game play a huge part in keeping the suspense with an almost constant darkness. Along with the

The main game director and creator (Arnt Jensen) took his previous of the scenes of forest from his childhood as inspiration for the game environment, showing that the environment is realistic to the memories of someone. The audience can relate to the basic scenes without it becoming foreign due to the lack of minor details and therefore giving a wide range of personal experiences of a forest. If the game had lots of details in the background then the viewer could struggle to relate the environment to their own experiences thus making the game less personal and the suspense of the game would be lost. The game would feel similar to a ‘shooting game’ where most of the audience haven’t used a gun before and wouldn’t be as emotionally or physiologically invested to the result of their actions. By using fewer details and block shapes it allows the players brain to fill in the blanks with their own personal memories of the environment making it more relatable in which to emotionally invest the player.

This image fig. [1] is directly taken from the game itself and show the ery feel that the game gives off. The dark black and white scene with a film grain overlay and white lighting effects bring a sense of isolation of the character in the middle of the image. There is a fog based effect which has many symbolic connotations like the approaching death, isolation and transformation to the unreal. From knowledge of the game there is almost certainly upcoming death for the protagonist through previous plays and the sense given from the visuals. The character is also isolated in the game which is symbolic of the fog, which is present throughout most of the forest scenes. The isolation becomes more apparent with the idea that he will most likely continue to be alone with the fogs persistence. This small, unlikely symbol of upcoming death for the character adds greater suspense of the unknown, as it is either showing isolation which is throughout or the likelihood of the character death.

The spider situated within the frame of this image is a recognisable importance towards the idea of phobias. Many children suffer from arachnophobia and a large percent continue to have a milder version of fear once in adulthood. This spider being in the game would relate to many people as 14 percent of the population in the United Kingdom have arachnophobia. The cultural beliefs about spider are suggested to be a reason why people are afraid of spiders due to their nature. The environment of the game relates as it common to see spiders outside in a forest. Many films have taken advantage of the populations fear of spider by including spiders (especially in larger forms) where the characters have been afraid, this in films could equally add to the effects of thinking the worst about something due to make-believe situations. This links to the later point based upon the character being a child and the fears associated with children and their emotions of these fears.

Another small detail that creates suspense in this image would be the use of ‘sharp’ shapes. The spiders legs, the tree branches and the foreground shapes are all a pointed form. The idea of these solid sharp edged shapes link quite closely to threatening objects such as knives. Using these shapes gives a heightened sense of danger for the view as any object could be at threat to the character and the image isn’t softened by the curved shapes. The game could’ve used softer shapes to lure the player into a false sense of security in order to trick them into thinking they are safe, however as the rest of the game has been created to be dark and ery throughout the producers want the players to know that at any point they could be danger. This creates the suspense throughout as the player is constantly on edge hoping that their next decision doesn’t lead to the death of the protagonist.

As a starting point the solo player aspect of the game along with its importance to create and sustain suspense for the audience is a key part of the game. From exploring the previous image, the character is a young boy illustrated with few distinctive features. This makes him more relatable to a wider audience as he is not distinctive to any individual nor is he his own person, so could be anyone. By being distinguishable to the player, it may become a struggle for them to make the connection needed to keep the character alive, needed in a game of choice where the outcome could lead in the characters death. “It is usually claimed that our fear derives from our engagement with characters and our participation through thought, simulation, or make-believe in fearful situations of the filmic world.”[2] The players choice of actions is relayed upon the character which makes the players engagement with him seem personal, this means that suspense is created through the morals of keeping the character alive. Solo player based game makes the engagement seem more understandable from the vulnerability of being alone. Fearful situations become more traumatic as there is no one to console or help the individual.

Although this quote is from a film it is appropriate as the style of video game is similar to that of an illustrated film which has previously been depicted. The black and white tone running throughout is based upon the film Noir cinematic term where the films were usually cynical and obtaintain suspense for the viewer throughout, much like the style in ‘Limbo’. From the 1920s to the 1950s the crime fiction emerged in the black and white style showing inspiration from the German Expressionist cinematography. The German expressionism came along with links from horror films and the effects of World War 1 due to the isolation which German felt in this period. This all links to why the style of the game and its key features such as; solo character, black and white and horror in the deaths of the character suit to the styles of these film movements. To which asks many questions, if the game is art work itself? The game would be classified into a sympathy game as many of the players would increasingly invest in the young boy pitying him and the trauma he has been facing. The protagonist in ‘Limbo’ is facing an almost constant stressful situation by the puzzles and traps he has to take usually ending in his death, with the game environment being very influential to the player it causes the character to become empathised.

Due to the game majority dark and with the solo character aspect of a young boy it links to the common knowledge of children having a fear of the dark. Nyctophobia, like many fears is likely to have been formed from previous fearful experiences usually from childhood. Images are often formed of the terrifying things that await them in the dark and as such movies would play a part in creating the imagination of the terrifying situations. The lack of colour in the game and the the unknown outcomes of gameplay would only keep suspense and bring back childhood fear if only to a small degree as the game isnt real life, but the child in the game brings forth the understanding of what he could be feeling. The player empathises with what the character could be feeling by the player projecting their understanding of the emotions they have felt in a similar situation.

Narnia is a world that was found entering a magical wardrobe that was found while playing a game of hide-and-seek in the home of an elderly professor. In this mysterious land, the four children discover a charming, peaceful land crawling with talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and giants that has become a cold world cursed to eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Under the guidance of a noble ruler, the lion Aslan, the siblings fight to overcome the White Witch’s powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular, climactic battle that will free Narnia from her spell forever. C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” is an amazing adventure of four Pevensie siblings who are Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter that is a wonderful movie overall with the plot, composition, cinematography, suspense, and originality.

During the World War II bombings of London, four English siblings are sent to a house in the country where they will be safe. They were bored out of their minds once they arrived and were dragged into playing hide-and-seek by their youngest, Lucy. While Peter, the eldest, counted to 100, the three others dispersed into the mansion to find the best hiding spot. Lucy wandered into a room that contained a big wooden wardrobe so being the curious child that she is, she went in and hid there. From that moment on, everything changed. The plot of this movie is spectacular. There are five different elements to a plot; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The five parts all work together to build suspense and flow together smoothly to create one unified storyline. C.S. Lewis and the director of the film, Andrew Adamson did an awesome job of executing all components and lining it up with the book.

To have a marvelous plot, it is so important that the arrangement of the story goes together. The composition must be perfect because, without that, the audience will be very confused as to what the story even is. The composition is important because it directs the audience’s attention and allows us to instantly convey information and subtext. The transitions were flawless which allowed the flow of this movie to be amazing and it is proven by how many fans there were. The author and directors did a fantastic job of making sure that there were no cracks with the way each scene followed the next.

With the scenes, the physical set also plays a huge role in a cinema. Cinematographer, Don McAlphine started his career in making small films in Australia before landing the big-budget movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Cinematographers work closely with both the set and art designers and sometimes, one scene can be very complicated because they are not just shot on different sites but could even be shot on different continents. For example, the first scene of Mr. Tumnus’ cave. You would think that it would just be fake snow and a cardboard cave but in reality, it is much more than that. The team initially found an actual cave in the Czech Republic and rebuilt it in New Zealand but came across a slight problem. The ceiling was too low. McAlphine did everything in his power to make it so that the scene would be perfect. When they went back to Europe in January to shoot some scenes outside the cave, there wasn’t any snow! The team hoped and hoped and luckily on the last day they were supposed to be there, it snowed immensely and they were able to get the shots. The shimmering blankets of snow, burdened trees and ice outside, and the feel of the cozy cave were all essential establishing points of the movie. Every single scene was panned out perfectly to match the tone of each act. Every single detail McAlphine included is what made this Narnia such a hit.

A perfect set of each scene is essential. You’ve heard the phrase “correlation does not imply causation”, but in this case, it is false. Every good movie will have some sort of suspense. The suspense keeps the audience on edge and makes them anticipate the resolution. I never would have predicted that Aslan would come back to life after the White Witch killed him. I do not think anyone could have predicted that when Lucy, Susan, Peter, and the Beavers were traveling to save Edmund, it was not Jadis who was chasing them but in fact, it was Father Christmas who came bearing gifts! The gifts that he bore aligns with all of the suspense because, during war, Peter’s shield and sword, Susan’s horn, and bow and arrow, and Lucy’s healing cordial were all used to keep the story and the suspense going by making war much more exciting and keeping the audience on the edge of their seats wondering, who will win?

What makes this film so special is its originality. Originality is a new concept or idea that has hardly been explored in the past. What makes Narnia so unique is the symbolism it portrays and the deeper meaning to it all. It is one of the very few fantasies that tie in Christianity into the plot. Aslan, the one true King of Narnia, symbolizes Jesus. Aslan appears in Narnia as large and terrifying, magnificent and wise, and one with kind eyes. Although he never changes, as people grow in wisdom and character, they can perceive more of his greatness. Aslan is very wise, and a powerful force for good. Queen Jadis, the White Witch who has ruled Narnia for 100 years, represents the power of Satan or evil in the world. Aslan’s story corresponds point by point to the story of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Jesus was portrayed as God in a human form and was, therefore, both ‘truly-god’ and ‘truly-incarnate’, like Aslan. The Bible also explains the death of Jesus as a very brutal way of dying, dying on the cross. Similarly, Aslan was tied to the stone table, shaved and tortured, and then killed by the sword of the witch in front of her followers. Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day after his death and Aslan was also resurrected shortly after his death and brings down the forces of evil, like the story of Christ and Satan’s defeat. The film also shows other narratives of the Christian crucifixion story like when Lucy and Susan are at the stone table after the death of Aslan, the table cracks and Aslan disappears. This scene echoes “the emotions of Mary Magdalene and the other women who attend[ed] the tomb of Christ only to find it empty” (Wilson, 2008). Every character is symbolic and that is what makes Narnia such a distinctive movie.

C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”. What a show! Who knew that a simple game like hide-and-seek would have had such an impact on the Pevensie siblings. The plot was so good that there was never a single moment in the movie where I got bored. As smooth as ice, the composition never failed to succeed because everything fit together like a glove. Each set was perfect for each scene, they did a splendid job with the cinematography. Just when you thought things would settle down, the suspense would just start building up again practically making the audience sitting on the edge of their seats! Last but not least, the originality. That is something that you just can’t beat how deep the message is. Narnia is most definitely my favorite movie ever.

This thesis basically focuses on Alfred Hitchcock’s works on creation of suspense in his movies. He was a British born director and is one of the most recognized movie directors of all time. The thesis aims on the films of Hitchcock generally pointing out the elements that are directed towards suspense and how he created suspense in his films by using various techniques.

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it”, said Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. The English filmmaker, arguably one of the most celebrated, was a master of the suspense thriller. The genre depends heavily on the structural device of creating anticipation – making the viewer tense, making them look forward to the fallout. Hitchcock did not believe in shocking his viewers, just in making them suffer.

In a career of over 60 years, he directed 50 feature films in Britain and in Hollywood. These have cemented his place as the ‘master of suspense’. Most films of this genre that have been made post-Hitchcock have been read and perceived in relation to his work.[footnoteRef:1] Suspense was a crucial feature of his work alongside cinematic devices such as voyeurism, MacGuffin and the cold female protagonist who is humiliated in the end.[footnoteRef:2] The suspense genre is often connected to horror or mystery. The key point of distinction between these categories is the difference between shock and suspense. Horror or mystery relies on taking the audience by surprise or keeping them guessing. Suspense takes a different route. The viewer is given all the information – they know more than the characters in the film. This creates a sense of unease in the audience and incites an emotional response from them, even when the outcome is obvious. For instance, the very first image of Orson Welles’ ‘Touch of Evil’ (1958) is a man with a bomb, who then plants it in a car. What follows is a long take three minute tracking shot of people in and near the car before the bomb finally explodes. The lightness of mood and the joyful ambient music suggests that no one is aware of the impending danger and hence, there is only one possible outcome – the explosion. The viewer knows this. Even then, there is a deep sense of anxiety throughout those three minutes in simple expectation of what is already implicitly understood. This is an experience unique to the suspense genre. [1: DERRY, Charles, “The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock”, McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, London, 1988, pp. 8-9] [2: EBERT, Roger, “Vertigo”, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago, 1996]

These techniques have been dubbed as ‘Hitchcockian’ because they came to represent his trademark style. He used cameras to imitate the human gaze, turning the viewer into a silent voyeur. The audience can see the characters, know they are in imminent danger, but can do nothing to warn or help them. This maximises fear and anxiety.[footnoteRef:3] [3: WOOD. Robin, “Hitchcock’s Films Revisited”, Columbia University Press, New York, 2002, pp. 56-59]

Hitchcock’s weapon of choice is editing. He intercuts shots of an unaware character with shots of the element of danger. For instance, in “The Birds’ (1963), when Melanie Daniels is riding a motorboat to the bay, she is attacked by a bird. It is a quick shot and we see a drop of blood. With the bird established as the threat, he can go on to create tension in a later scene where Melanie is sitting in a park, smoking a cigarette. Shots of her calmly smoking are intercut with shots of birds crowding on to a jungle gym behind her, one by one. Her shots are longer and those of the birds are quicker, lasting only a few second each. The final shot of her relaxed face lasts almost 30 seconds before she looks up to see a bird. And then when the film cuts to the jungle gym, it is crawling with tens of black birds perched on the bars. It is quietly terrifying. Moreover, we can hear children in a nearby school singing an eerie, monotonous song throughout the scene.

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock born on 13th August, 1899 in Leytonstone, Essex, England at a greengrocer’s family to William and Emma Jane. At the age of 11 he was sent to Jesuit Classic School St. Ignatius College in London. After that he finished his studies, he started working he begun working at Henley Telegraph Company, where he worked as a draftsman and advertising designer. Simultaneously he took courses at London University where he studied art. Hitchcock was already interested in film at this time and from the age of seventeen, he read movie newspapers. Hitchcock began to express his creativity during his time at Henley by regularly submitting short articles for in-house publishing established at the company. Hitchcock soon became one of the most prolific contributors and his first ever short story called Gas from 1919 revealed what themes and topic were close to him. The story was about a young woman who thinks she was assaulted only to reveal that it was hallucination.

Hitchcock’s first films to finish was The Pleasure Garden, which was a flop though. The film was shot in Germany where Hitchcock had spent time before and that was important to him as he had immersed himself in expressionism. The real breakthrough came when The Lodger: a London fog story was released in 1926. This is regarded as the first true thing. The films feature a man who is on the run and is hunted by the mainstream society. In the next sound stage of Hitchcock’s career, the influence of silent films remained important until the end of his career. He expressed regret at the arrival of sound in his interviews with Truffaut as he believed that the availability of dialogue had reduced the importance of film narrative. Evidently, the manifestation of silent film techniques is present in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and most notably in Psycho, characterized by sparse dialogue and long stretches where the narration proceeds only through visual images. In the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, the sequence of attempting to prevent assassination attempts by Dr. Mckenna and his wife, last 10 minutes ae without dialogue. Actually, the two protagonists speak, but we can’t hear them, we can only assume what they’re saying like in a silent movie. This scene illustrates the philosophy of Hitchcock that was shaped in the era of silent movies.

Psycho was Hitchcock’s most profitable film and it was the most profitable black and white sound film ever made at the time. But not only did Psycho mark the high point of Hitchcock’s career, at least popularity and money wise, but it also signalled the approaching end of his career as none of the subsequent films released matched the public reception and the quality of Hitchcock’s features of the 1950’s.

Bird, shot in 1962 & released a year later, was based on Daphne du Marier’s short story. In Birds and later in Marnie, which was a disappointment later mainly from a commercial point of view, Hitchcock used Tippi Hedren, who is known to have had a very distinctive and rather unpleasant experience working with Hitchcock who allegedly destroyed her professional life, as the last icy-blonde quasi of his career.

Hitchcock’s last 15 years of careers were limited by the deteriorating health of the director and it was evident that the director was in decline. This fact was reflected in Hitchcock’s films’ quality and reception.

After shooting Family Plot, Hitchcock’s heath deteriorated further, and the director spent the last years of his life in his home in Bel Air, California, where he died on April 29, 1980.

Suspense

The single most connecting element of Hitchcock films is the utilization of suspense. Suspense is a dramaturgy technique uses the difference in knowledge between the audience and the characters on the screen. Suspense can also be considered as the enjoyable experience between hope & fear and relies on certain cognitive mechanisms and often goes along with autonomic, physiological arousal. Suspense can be understood and defines as an intense feeling experienced by spectators while awaiting the outcome of some events. The most common source of suspense in films is the genre of thrillers and horrors that naturally rely on intense anxiety to maximize their potential. The suspense history is closely linked to thrillers- a genre of film that is most closely linked to suspense. The history o thrillers dates back to the 1920s and 1930s, so back to the era of silent movies. Hitchcock’s first successful thriller film The Lodger in 1926 was one of the first major thrillers that shaped this genre for more than a decade. If we look closer at the stage from which suspense films originated, the most common denominator is Alfred Hitchcock, who was really at the very beginning of the whole genre. The early stages of thrillers evolution clearly became and English issue in the 1930s when a large number of suspense films were released, notably by Hitchcock, who would continue this trend in the next decade and many years later as well. However, suspense is not just limited to thrillers and horrors, and if there is an opportunity to exploit dramatic tensions, it can be found and used in any given film.

Apparently, the basis of suspense always revolves around the fact that the film audience is constantly anticipating what can happen next in a given narrative situation and can manipulate the spectators in such a way as to generate suspense. When the audience is repeatedly reminded of the possibility of an event, this fact allows the building of suspense and more importantly the maintenance of tension throughout the narrative so that the identification of the audience with a relevant story does not decrease.