Essay On “Suspense In Horror Films“

I have been studying two films "Scream" by Wes Craven and "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock.

I will be looking at how both directors created the suspense to entertain the audience. Both of these films are examples from the horror genre. I have been analysing the "shower scene" in Psycho and the "Casey Becker scene" in Scream.

Alfred Hitchcock was born 13th August 1899, in London. He was a famous director, who based his career on making suspense films. He was also known as "Master of suspense".

His example of a suspense situation is by placing a bomb underneath a table. This is a good example because it uses dramatic irony, because the audience knows what is about to happen, that the bomb is about to go off, so it builds up the climax and gives out the suspense.

Wes Craven was born August 3rd 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. He has made numerous horror films, such as "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Shocker" and "People under the stairs". Due to this, he has now become known as "Fright Master"!

Psycho was one of the most famous films ever made. In this film Alfred Hitchcock has used many different camera shots

We then see Norman suspiciously look at the hotel register, the camera gives us a close up, to show us that she did sign her real name.

At this point the music is gradually getting louder and faster in the background, although the main noise is from the popcorn in the kitchen which has set on fire.

When the parents rush into the house looking for Casey, the mother picks up the phone and hears Casey on the line dying. This is a very sad moment for the audience and makes them feel empathy for the mother. As we see Casey being dragged away, we hear the sound of a choir being played in the background. This shows that Casey’s life has now tragically come to an end. As her parents walk out of the house, the cameras zoom in from a long distance shot into a close up shot of Casey hanging from a tree.

The scene starts when Marion arrives at the Bates Motel. Everything seems normal at the start, but things slowly start to change.

We now see a slow motion view of Casey being chased by her killer. We then see Casey being stabbed in the chest and then falling to the ground. When he attempts to stab her again, she manages to fight him off, hoping she’ll be able to go and get some help. We see her struggling really hard to get to her parents, who are at the front porch. This is shown as a low angle shot. This is a very tense moment because the audience is wondering whether she’ll be able to get to them.

Some topics in this essay:
Casey Becker’s, Meanwhile Marion, Marion Norman, Alfred Hitchcock, Norman Norman, Psycho Scream, Wes Craven, Norman Marion, Norman’s Parlour, Bates Motel, camera close, makes audience, extreme close, camera shots, wes craven, shot casey, alfred hitchcock, extreme close killer’s, low angle, gripped seats, dramatic irony, camera extreme close, scream wes craven, suspense entertain audience,