I was sick during the first day of filming and starting blogs, so this is my first post.


Let ‘Em Play God”

The most important points, I believe, of the article “Let ‘Em Play God,” are as follows:

. Every maker of mystery movies aims at getting the audience on the edge of their seats. This is called “suspense.” You have suspense when you let the audience play God.

. If the audience have been told all the secrets that the characters do not know, they’ll work like the devil for you because they know what fate is facing the poor actors. That is what is known as “playing God.” That is suspense.

. I do not believe that puzzling the audience is the essence of suspense.

. The audience knows everything from the start, the players know nothing. There is not a single detail to puzzle the audience. It is not a whodunit because everyone knows who did it. No one on the screen knows except the two murderers. The fact that the audience watches actors go blithely through an atmosphere that is loaded with evil makes for real suspense.

. If we are successful we’ll have the audience at such a pitch that they want to shout every time one of the players go near the chest – (in this certain film, this is the object which conceals the murdered corpse).

. In order to achieve this, one of the necessary ingredients of the formula is a series of plausible situations with people that are real. When characters are unbelievable you never get real suspense, only surprise.

. Just because there is a touch of murder and an air of mystery about a story it is not necessary to see transoms opening, clutching fingers, hooded creatures and asps on the Chinese rug.

. It is important in a story with sinister implications to use counterpoint, great contrast between situation and background.

. Through the ages, in literature, acting, directing, and the dance, style has been the mark of the man, the element of his work which tended to set it apart from the work of others.

. Style in directing develops slowly and naturally as it does in everything else.

. Passing that style, no matter what art it is concerned with, cannot be superimposed consciously on any work. It must be the result of growth and patient experimentation with the materials of the trade, the style itself emerging eventually almost unconsciously.









“What Scares Us”
Based upon our viewing of the film “The Shining,” I have concluded that the following things are essential for scaring audiences:

. Scary, Tense Music. The distorted, synthesizing drone sound creates a very tense atmosphere, and emphasizes the danger of the situation.

. Slow Motion. People walking slow, as they are scared to approach a scene of horror, killers walking in slow motion as the ascend upon an unsuspecting victim … All of these factors drag out the inevitable scene, making audiences scared of the slow pace, and desperate to know what’s going to happen. The waiting is a very tense game.

. Quick-Paced Cuts. This sudden change of scene, if paired with the right music, can scare audiences, or surprise them and make them jump. Even if the next scene is not a scary one, just the notion of the fast moving editing can leave us shaken up.

. Children Characters. There is something so creepy about a little villain girl or boy. I think it’s the supposed innocence of children, which contrasts strangely with the fact that they’re demonic. It could also be the fact that they are so often made to look like little china dolls, which can be very creepy in themselves. The Grady twins in “The Shining” are joined by “Samara,” the long haired drowned little villain girl in “The Ring,” and “Regan,” the possessed child from “The Exorcist,” to name a few.

. Darkness. A lot of people are scared of the dark, which makes it perfect for use in thriller/horror/scary films. Most bad things, such as murders and stalkings, etc. happen at night, in somewhere isolated and eerily dark. It sets the scene and creates fear in the viewer.

. Isolation. As stated in the above bullet point, isolation is a key factor in creating tension and scaring us. Being alone is scary. Film-makers play on that, as all horror films are set in lonely castles, or little log cabins deep in an remote forest, etc. It is very rarely set in a busy, bustling city. And if it is, it’s always the broken down part of the city, where, despite the vast amount of people, you are usually all alone anyway, or at least feel like you are.