How to Create Suspense in Your Films
Hey guys, Ryan here.
We’ve all watched a scene where we know something bad is about to happen. A character walks into a room. Something moves behind them. They don’t notice it, but we do. Now we’re waiting for them to turn around, and every second they don’t makes us a little more uncomfortable.
As filmmakers, how do we create that feeling?
Suspense starts with how we tell the story. Our camera work, sound, lighting, and editing give us ways to build on it. But before we get into those tools, we need to understand what makes an audience anticipate what’s coming.
Let’s get started.
Suspense Starts With Information
Suspense is that feeling of uncertainty while we wait for something to happen. We think we know where a scene is going, but we don’t know exactly how or when it will get there.
And this works in all kinds of films. Horror, action, thrillers—even an ordinary conversation can become suspenseful with the right information.
Alfred Hitchcock’s famous bomb-under-the-table example explains this really well.
Imagine two people sitting at a table talking about football. Without warning, a bomb underneath them explodes. The audience is shocked, but they haven’t spent the conversation worrying about these characters. They didn’t know there was anything to worry about.
Now imagine we show the audience the bomb before the conversation begins.
Suddenly, that same discussion becomes uncomfortable. We’re watching these people talk about something completely unimportant while we know what’s sitting beneath them. We want them to stop talking and get out of there.
The conversation hasn’t changed. What the audience knows has changed.
That’s something we can use when planning our own scenes. What information could we give the audience that would make them worry about what happens next?
Give the Audience Something to Wait For
In the video, I also discuss author Dan Brown’s approach to suspense: making promises to your audience and eventually delivering on them.
When we establish that something is going to happen, we give the audience a reason to keep watching. They want to find out how it happens, why it happens, or whether someone can prevent it.
We can stretch that anticipation by delaying the payoff and providing little reminders along the way.
Parallel storylines give us another way to do this. We might follow two characters whose paths are clearly going to cross. The audience can see the collision coming, even if the characters can’t.
When will they meet? What happens when they do?
Those questions can carry tension through several scenes. But once we’ve made the audience wait, we need to give that anticipation a satisfying payoff.
Withhold the Right Information
We can also create suspense by keeping something from the audience.
I know—we just talked about giving them information. But we can make them curious by showing them that there’s something important they haven’t seen yet.
Here’s the example from the video.
A character searches through an attic or closet, looking for a particular box. We can tell finding it matters to them, but we don’t know why.
Finally, they find it. They dig through the contents and pull out a photograph. Their expression changes. Whatever they’re looking at has shocked them.
But we never show the front of the photo.
Now the audience wants to know what’s on it. We’ve shown them the search, the discovery, and the reaction while holding back the information that explains it all.
Of course, we now have a responsibility to reveal that secret in an entertaining way. We’ve asked the audience to care about the answer.
Give Your Scenes Time to Build
Once we have suspense working in the story, we can use the filmmaking process to strengthen it.
One way is to slow down.
Give the audience time to anticipate what might happen. Let a character approach a doorway, listen for a sound, or hesitate before opening something.
If we rush through those moments, we might lose the tension they could create. A slower pace gives the audience room to imagine the possibilities.
The key is giving them something to anticipate during that time. Think back to the bomb under the table. Once we know it’s there, waiting becomes uncomfortable.
Use the Background
We can also use the relationship between the foreground and background to create suspense.
Imagine our main character in the foreground while something appears behind them. The audience notices it, but the character keeps doing whatever they’re doing.
Now we’re waiting for them to realize they aren’t alone.
Composition and depth of field help us decide how clearly the audience can see that background information. We might reveal a threat clearly or give them just enough movement to make them uneasy.
Either way, we’re deciding who gets to see what.
Stay With the Character
A long tracking shot can build tension by keeping us with a character for an uncomfortable amount of time.
The camera follows them, and we don’t cut away. We move through the space with them, waiting for something to happen.
That uninterrupted movement can make us feel more present in the scene. If we already have a reason to worry, staying there can make that anticipation even stronger.
Let Sound and Lighting Help Tell the Story
Sound gives us a lot of options.
A slowly building drone or a single piano note can create unease. We can also make a scene very quiet, giving the audience room to listen and wait.
Think about what the audience should hear at each moment and how that changes their expectations.
Lighting works in a similar way. Our character might be clearly visible while something moves in the shadows behind them. We know something is there, but we can’t quite make it out.
We’re giving the audience a little information and leaving room for their imagination to fill in the rest.
When you’re planning your next film, take a scene and ask yourself: What does the audience know? What does the character know? What are we making the audience wait for?
Then think about how your shots, pacing, sound, and lighting can support that feeling.
Try the box-and-photograph exercise yourself. See how much curiosity you can create through a character’s actions and reaction before you reveal what they’ve found.
You can watch the examples in my video, How to Create Suspense in Film.
Thanks for coming along on this filmmaking journey with me.
—Ryan
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