How Does Alfred Hitchcock Create Suspense In Let Em Play God

In the non-fiction article, “Let ‘Em Play God” by Alfred Hitchcock the author claims that by letting the audience play God is a technique of creating suspense and not by confusing them. The difference between mystery and suspense is mystery, is something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain, while suspense is a quality in a work of fiction that arouses excited expectation. For example, “If the audience does know, if they have been told all the secrets that the characters do not know what fate is facing the poor actors, that is what it known as “playing God” or suspense” (paragraph 5, pg.5). This means, Alfred Hitchcock believes that by letting the audience play God is a way of creating suspense in a movie. This is important because mystery and suspense

For instance, in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Rope, the Camera zoomed into Brandon’s hand going to his pocket to hold his gun (Rope). Proximity and Characterization were also used on how Brandon and Phillip acted and talked nervously while staying really close to Rupert. This tells me that Alfred Hitchcock’s techniques are effective techniques, because zoom shots, proximity and characterization helped create suspense in the movie Rope. This is significant because Alfred Hitchcock’s techniques are essential in making a suspense movie. Suspense is created differently in movies than it is in books by not being able to use zoom ins and camera movements as if it’s a pair of eyes. For example, in the movie Rope when Rupert was describing how he would’ve murdered David, the camera was moving as if as a pair of eyes looking at the objects he used, but if it was a book that wouldn’t have been shown (Rope). In conclusion, Alfred Hitchcock believes that by letting the audience play God, camera movements, zoom ins, characterization and proximity are a good way of creating a suspense movie, not by puzzling