Alfred Hitchcock

Let ‘Em Play God – Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock defines suspense as letting the audience ‘play god’. He believes letting the audience know the characters; their personalities and secrets that other characters do not know they’ll work hard because they know what fate is facing the actors.

Alfred Hitchcock believes you have suspense when you let the audience play god not by puzzling the audience. If the audience knows everything from the start and the characters know nothing they will have the upper hand because they know whether to cheer or weep.
For the audience to do this it is necessary to have a series of plausible situations with people that are real. When characters are unbelievable you never get real suspense, only surprise. Suspense involves contrast.