How Does Amenabar Create Suspense

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The Others is a supernatural horror film written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar is a film that builds suspense. One critic when describing “the others” wrote: “the others begins with a scream and ends with the best goosebump including finale.” Sustained tension is key to the film’s success. Amenabar achieves this through his various film techniques. The film is set in a mansion on Jersey

A key scene which creates suspense and is the intruder scene. The scene starts by Grace sitting by herself quietly in the nursery, embroidering.The director starts the scene with a slow pan of the room. The pan is used to show that Grace is sitting by herself and is vulnerable and anything could happen. The slow movement of the camera helps create a calm but eary atmosphere.The scene is set as very calm at …show more content…

There is a long shot so you can see the whole room. This creates a relaxing atmosphere for the audience. Grace is embroidering a new veil for Anne her daughter first communion. She is surrounded by the childrens toys and a teapot so it is a very calming and very homely. The colours in the room are quite light so they contrast with the dark of the home. She needs the calming atmosphere created by the objects around her to keep her concentrated on her embroidering.The director has put the calming objects and grace in the nursery a relaxing place and there would be no threat whatsoever towards her and nothing threatening that could happen in such a room. Amenabar has done this to calm down the audience down so they can relax and take a breather and also so it would be surprising for them about what is going to happen next.There is a high angle shot indicating the source of where the sound is coming from it is also used to show graces reaction when she hears a noise from upstairs in the junk room. The camera pans round to clearly show where the sound is coming