If Cornered Scream By Hannah Sandberg Summary

When vieweing horror media, there are many different techniques used to build the suspense. The technique of using artistic elements is used greatly when creating a suspsenseful mood. This technique is especially used iin “If Cornered, scream” and in “Lights Out.” In “If Cornered, scream” Thurmond uses the act of foreshadowing events to develop the mood. However, Sandberg uses sound effects to build the mood, in “Lights Out”. In “If Cornered, scream” when the protaginist is dricing home from the mental institute she reviews the safety lectures given to the nurses, every night she drives home. These actions by the nurse leaves the reader feel suspcious and unsure of the story. “Each night during the drive home, she relieved the safety lectures

“As she drove, she found herself gripping the steering wheel and made a conscious effort to relax and think pleasant thoughts.” (Thurmond 546) As a reader, finding the nurse make an effort to think of pleasant thoughts is quite unusal and strange, this can make the reader predict that the nurse suffers with a lot of trauma from the ward and it can be a struggle for her to think of positive thoughts. Thurmond does a good job in adding these artistic elements that tie the suspenseful mood together. In a similar matter, Sandberg used the artistic element of sound effects to develop the suspense. In “Lights Out,” sound effects are used greatly to create the suspense. These sounds range from the creaking of wood to sudden loud noises. When the main character hears the door creaking as it slowly opens, she is frightened. These emotions are passed on to the viewer because of how real the expereince feels to the audience. (time stamp) The creeking of the door can help the viewer predict what will ahppen next, is there a ghost haunting the house, is a monster going to come out of no where? There are many questions one has when hearing the explicit sounds that help build the tensity of the story even