1. in literature and in film

2.  A suspenseful story is one in which suspense keeps the reader anxious and on the edge until the end.  Suspense is the anxiety or apprehension that a reader feels due a lack of certainty about what is going to happen.  This lack of certainty (which makes a reader feel nervous) is called tension.

3. In suspense, there must be an unknown; there must be a suspicion, a mystery, or a danger we expect.

5. Audience Knowledge Alfred Hitchcock said: “There is a clear difference between surprise and suspense […]. We are sitting here and having an innocent conversation. Let us assume that there is a bomb under this table between us. […] suddenly there is a loud boom and the bomb goes off. The audience is surprised, but before this surprise they have only seen a very ordinary scene without any significance.

6. “Let us instead look at a suspense scene. The bomb is under the table and the audience is aware of this because they have seen the anarchist plant it there. They also know that the bomb will go off at one o’clock, and up on the wall is a clock showing that the time is now quarter to one […]. In the first scene we have given the audience 15 seconds of surprise […] but in the last scene we have given them fifteen minutes of suspense.” (Truffaut 1973, p 52-32)

7. Audience knowledge (knowing facts that the characters do not) creates tension because the audience is helpless. (This is a technique called dramatic irony, by the way!) In this scenario, the characters are helpless, too, because they don’t know what is about to happen. Writing good suspense is all about how well the author handles both the characters and the basic plot information!

8. To develop suspense, a number of plot elements need to be set up. First, the author has to set up the characters and make the audience care about them and hope they won’t be harmed. The audience doesn’t have to know a lot about a character in order to care for him or her. The character has to be easy to relate to and must be likeable. The author should also attempt to establish the anarchists – those that are responsible for the danger in which the main character finds himself.

9. It is also important for an author to develop expectations to heighten the tension. The author needs to establish early in the story that something bad can happen, in essence letting the reader know that the bomb could, in fact, go off. A reader must be presented with a situation that is plausible and has a potentially undesirable outcome in order to get “hooked” into the tension of a story.

10. Similarly, when the plot indicates that an evil character will probably fail to achieve his or her end, there isn’t much suspense. Likewise, when a good character is likely to succeed, there isn’t much suspense. But we do feel suspense when it seems that an evil character is likely to succeed, or that a good character is likely to fail.

11. In the movie The Dark Knight, time was used to heighten suspense throughout. Every day Batman failed to reveal himself, people would die. Because of this, the audience keeps watching to see if or how the Joker will get to his target. Several of the threats the Joker made against Batman included deadlines. For example, he had “just minutes left” to save either Rachel or Dent. Let’s watch how this works…

12. Time is also frequently used to heighten suspense. When the audience is aware that time is running out, it makes them more nervous as the time ticks down.

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIj2uL2f1rE

14. The way the Joker parceled out crucial information about his new game quickly heightened the tension in that interrogation scene. Batman knew something was amiss, but the Joker only gave little pieces of information at a time. Then there was the commercial – tonight at five o’clock, we’ll reveal the identity of Batman. Stay tuned. Or the Joker’s phone call – “If Coleman Reese isn’t killed in sixty minutes, I’m going to blow up a hospital.” Or the ferry situation – if you don’t blow up the other ferry by midnight, I’ll blow up both of your ferries. This wasn’t done just for the sake of suspense. The emphasis was still on the characters because the Joker was out to prove a point about humanity.

15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEqfzr-5dBY

16. Of course, there doesn’t have to be a literal clock to make the tension heightened. It’s one thing building upon another thing. It’s multiple setups for one big pay off. It’s the simple knowledge of what’s about to happen and then that thing happens (or not). Which leads me to the construction of a suspenseful scene…

17. The development of suspense in a story or novel occurs, as we’ve determined, when the audience connects with and cares about the characters, is aware of something bad that can happen, is given hints about what will happen later (foreshadowing), and through the development of tension. Filmmakers have the additional tools of visuals and sound effects/music to create suspense.

18. To begin the suspenseful scene in a movie, the audience must be made aware of the potential for danger that the characters are facing. The audience often knows something that the characters do not, like the fact that the “bad guy” is just outside the door. This part of the scene is called the set up. The set up gives the audience all the information they need to see in order to understand that something bad is about to happen. Let’s watch an example:

19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r40q8cbDhuE&feature=pl ayer_embedded

20. As you can see from the film, we now understand what could become a problem for the main character (Hermione, in this case). We also have established a connection to the main characters. 1) What is the potential for danger in this scene? 2) How do we know this is a bad thing? What clues are we given from what we see and hear? What direct knowledge (if any) are we given from information told to us by the characters? 3) What about the character (Hermione) has created a connection with the audience? Why is she likable/sympathetic? (use only info you’ve just watched!)

21. Next comes the build up. This is the point in the scene where sound effects and music play a big roll. During the build up, the audience’s tension increases because we’re moved closer to the pay off by the music increasing in volume and tempo, sound effects getting louder, and the action increasing in pace. ( This is an advantage that movies have over stories in building suspense !) Watch what happens in this scene:

22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BNbHBcnDI

23. Notice the way in which the music affects the scene. The build up is very important because it tells us the pay off is imminent. Watch the video again and make notations about all of the things that happen between the time when the pelican saves Dori and Marlin and when they finally escape the seagulls. Pay particular attention to sound effects and visuals that build us toward the pay off!

24. The distraction is designed to increase tension by taking the viewers away from the characters involved in the suspenseful scene. The intention is to drag out (or delay ) the impending pay off. The key to the distraction is that the camera leaves the victims and the trouble makers behind and switches the audience to something or someone unrelated or uninvolved in the danger. The purpose is to postpone our finding our what happens to our characters so that we’re worrying about them!

25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AArz6WC-vYA

26. Notice the way in which the audience’s attention was distracted from the impending pay off. 1) To what was your attention diverted during this scene when the kidnapping was happening? 2) What, do you think, is the purpose of repeatedly going back and forth between Liam Neeson and his daughter? How does it add to the suspense? *Note, that suspenseful scenes often have multiple build-ups and distractions and that these two parts of the scene can happen in any order. This means you may have a distraction first, or you may have a build-up, a distraction, and another build-up, etc.

27. In a suspenseful scene, there has to be an essential question: Will Romeo get to Juliet on time? Will Dorothy return home? The pay off answers that question because we, the audience, find out the result of the “potential for danger.” Does the character get caught, hurt, killed? Or was it a false danger? (We’ve all watched scenes in movies when it seems as something bad will happen, but then something silly happens instead!). The pay off MUST be related to what we learned in the set up, so that we can understand it! Watch the following clips to see examples of both a pay off with a real danger and one with a false danger.

28. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_eZmEiyTo0

29. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEsBt5QHSQk

30. 1) Which clip shows a real pay off? 2) What had you learned in the set-up that connects to what happens in the pay off? 3) In what way does the clip showing the false danger still create feelings of tension? Why would a producer/director choose to include scenes with a false pay off? What do you think is their purpose? 4) For each scene, what essential question is being asked. In each scene, what is the answer?

31. Now that you have an understanding of the use of suspense, we’re going to read a story that works as a great example of this type of writing. In the mean-time, start thinking about a suspenseful scene from a movie you’ve watched that contains all of the 4 required elements of a suspenseful scene. You’ll be using this in a project, so be sure you have access to a copy of the film! (The scene must be rated PG-13 or below!)