'Let em play God'

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13th 1899 in Leytonstone London, and he unfortunately died on April 29th 1980 at the age of 80. He wrote an article about how to create suspense and what it really is. In class we were given a sheet about him.

Joseph Hitchcock wrote an article called thrills, suspense, the audience'. In this article Hitchcock. We always wonder how movie makers get the audience at the edge of their seat and Joseph Hitchcock talks about this. ‘Let em play God’, Hitchcock assumes that suspense is built up when the audience plays God. If as the audience we are unaware if a character is a hero or villain they will not know whether to rejoice or not rejoice. Hitchcock says if the audience has been told all the secrets that the character doesn’t know, “they’ll work like the devil for you because they know what fate is facing the poor actors”. He describes this as “Playing God”.

Surprise not suspense is built if a character is not convincing according to Hitchcock. Hitchcock also says that we do not need effects such as shadows, dull weather and creaky doors to build up suspense. His movie ‘Rope’ was evidence for this point. As Hitchcock became more interested in developing his suspense techniques, he chose to shoot these types of stories exclusively. When Hitchcock had made ‘Secret Agent’, ‘Sabotage’, and ‘The 39 Steps’ this conclusion was made.