Aspects of a thriller; Alfred Hitchcock.

   Alfed Hitchcock was the master of suspense, whose films came to be the benchmark for psychological thrillers. He believed that the only way to get rid of his fears, was to make films about them. A few of his quotes are:

- 'There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.'
-'If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what is going on'
- 'Always make the audience suffer as much as possible'.
-'I am a typed director. If i made Cinderella, the audience would immediatly be looking for a body in the coach.'

Under the strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock, thrillers often begin with a crime, and then an accusation of an innocent bystander. Were the accused, to contact the authorities, no doubt the case would be solved, however, the bystander runs from the law and thus further jeapordizing life and limb. A few examples of this happening are in films such as, 'The 39 Steps' and 'North by Northwest'.

Sabotage (1935)

The film 'Sabotage' directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example of suspense. Hitckcock creates suspense by using extreme close-ups and fading shots, along with fast paced editing and faced paced music that resembles a clock, that also rises in pitch and volume. The fact that the music resembles a clock, creates tension, due to the fact that in a scene, a boy is told to take a 'roll of film' to a station, and has to be there by a certain time. Due to the fact that the boy gets distracted, and stopped, the boy starts to run late, and the ticking clock in the music puts the audience on edge, due to the fact that they know that the bomb is about to go off any second. Hitchcock drags the scene out, so that the audience start to feel sympathy for the boy and start to feel worried. The constant shot of clocks also effectively creates suspense.

Rope (1948)

Rope tells the story of two young wealthy mean, Brandon and Philip, who strangle and murder a friend of theirs just to see if they can get away with it. They invite other close friends round to their apartment for a dinner party, whilst hiding the body in a chest in their sitting room, just to see if they can get away with it, without getting caught. The suspense is created through the body in the chest. Hitchcock creates suspense by constantly placing the chest in the middle of each clip and between the dialogue of all people involved in the dinner party scene. He uses dramatic music to give the scene and edgy feel.

Hitchcocks Maguffin

•  A Maguffin is a plot device that motivates the characters in the flm and advances the story, but has little or no relevance to the story.
• ''We have a name in the studio and we call it the 'Maguffin'. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers'

Psychological Thrillers

The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one anothers mind, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state.

Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds, usually this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them.

 Enigmas This refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or unexplicable, or a riddle or difficult problem. In thrillers, this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.