Vehicles of Suspense

Vehicles of Suspense

The classic plot of good verse evil is used once again in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Guy Haines plays the part of the innocent protagonist who is suspected of a crime, the murder of his wife Miriam, when the real culprit is the antagonist Bruno Antony, a man that Guy met on a train. Hitchcock uses many filming techniques throughout the movie to make the scenes more suspenseful and cause tension.

A major example of a mood altering filming technique is the scene in which Miriam is murdered. The scene takes place in the dark of night on a small island. The darkness of the scene already causes suspense, but it is the way the murder is shot that really causes your feeling and mood to change. As Bruno wraps his hands around Miriam’s neck and begins to strangle her, her glasses fall to the ground and the glass is partially broken. The murder is then filmed as though you are looking through Miriam’s glasses. The scene becomes distorted and almost blurry. The face of the murderer, Bruno, is blacked out.