10 Genius Suspense Tricks That Made Movies Great
These classic movies played you like a fiddle - and then some.
Even making a terrible movie is an incredibly difficult task, requiring dozens if not hundreds of cast and crew members to collaborate on a single vision with the hope that audiences actually like it.
With the hundreds of micro-decisions a filmmaker has to make in a single day, there are countless things which can go wrong, and so if directors can simply get a film in the can, that in of itself is a fair achievement.
But top-level filmmaking is a whole other ball game, so to speak, requiring directors to get creative in order to wow audiences and, in some small way, hopefully advance the medium.
When it comes to the horror and thriller genres in particular, suspense is absolutely vital to keeping both the audience's pulse and interest high.
Without it, the required feelings of anguish, anxiety, and terror simply won't transpire through to viewers, and as a result they're likely to be left unmoved.
But smart filmmakers are able to get inventive and find unique ways to evoke deeply visceral reactions from audiences that they'll remember years, or perhaps even decades, later.
You might not have consciously picked up on all of these nifty cinematic tricks, but your brain absolutely did...
10. Buzzing Bees Were Added To The Soundtrack To Evoke A Primal Fear - The Exorcist
William Friedkin's The Exorcist is one of the most intense and unnerving films ever made, in large part due to Friedkin's concerted efforts to agitate the audience's most base and primal instincts.
Though it's well known that the horror masterpiece features numerous "subliminal" flashes of the white-faced demon Captain Howdy, the director also experimented with the film's soundscape in order to leave audiences unconsciously off-kilter.
Friedkin had the faint sound of buzzing bees layered into many of the movie's earlier scenes, a sound which tends to trigger an innate fight-or-flight response in people who hear it, in turn leaving audiences in a state of heightened, semi-conscious anxiety.
Furthermore, Friedkin subtly added what he called "disturbing industrial sounds" into many of the scenes featuring the demon, further evoking a feeling of angst in viewers.
Given how firmly the film holds audiences in its grip, it's tough to argue with the director's unorthodox, off-the-wall methods.