The role of suspense
in psychological thriller:
Linguistic suspense
is made by two opposite parts
In dictionary, “suspense” stands for a “feeling”
before something happened. Definitely, suspense is not only a feeling. Suspense
is an indication which used to transiting in a story. When we meet the suspense
in movie, there must be something happened. The suspense holds information and
signals reader or audiences that something is being withheld.
In addition, suspense is also a way to
express an uncertain outcome. By using this uncertain outcome, it is easy to
create conflict. With the leading of uncertain experience, audience’s emotion
has been evoked. The role of the suspense has been proved immediately. However,
the role of the suspense has no limited. It is not only shows the audience’s
reflection, but also pushes the development of the story or any others.
Francois Truffaut in his interview with
Alfred Hitchcock reminds the “suspense is a question of how…” Suspense is made
up of various kinds of visual aids, such as language, dialogue. These aids make
up in mess to establish visual scenes which have ability to enhance audience’s
emotion. For example, it is usual to see one part of the movie to be put in the
beginning in the entire movie. And this part can be regarded as suspense and
scare audience. Consequently, suspense is a method to express or narrative the
story in special way.
Not only in story, had suspense also
played an important role in psychological thriller. What is psychological
thriller? It is a type of movies which are related to psychological analysis. Language,
as one of the basic elements in a movie, plays an important role in psychological
thriller, especial for creating suspense. And this linguistic suspense is
useful for shaping character’s life and help story develop. In this study, we
will focus on the role of linguistic suspense in psychological thriller.
Discussion
Butterfly Effect is
one of the most famous psychological thrillers in world. It talks about a young
man who suffers from temporary amnesia wants to change history. Form his diary;
he recognized his bad behavior in childhood. His behavior affects his friends’
life a lot. In order to make other’s life better, he begin to change what he
did in childhood, however, he ignores the butterfly effect in his life. Even a
small change will cause a significant change later. It is impossible to change
everyone’s destiny to fine. No one can be the God. In the end, the young man
uses his power to return to the time before he was born. He kills himself in his
mother’s uterus.
Consider the image in
movie, Roel M Willems, Krien Clevis and Peter Hagoort support their ideal in Linguicism in Hollywood Movies? Representations
Of, and Audience Reactions to Multilingualism in Mainstream Movie Dialogues.”which
is useful for find the relationship between visual image and movie. In this
book, they analysis the reason about this connect relationship. In their
opinion, the visual image is created by suspense in movie.(404)
The suspense in this
psychological thriller is more attractable. There are four suspense in
Butterfly Effect which creates a significance image which effect audiences’
emotion a lot.
First, in the
beginning of the movie, the young man—Evan broke into doctor’s office and write
down a sentence under the desk.—“If anyone finds this, it means that my plan
didn’t work, and I’m already dead. If I can somehow go back to the beginning of
all of this, I might be able to save her.” In this suspense, the words are
really simple, and easy to be understood. However, we all know what we
understand is the superficial meaning of the sentence rather than the deeper
meaning of the suspense. Just like Vorderer, Peter, Hans J. rgen Wulff, and
Mike Friedrichsen have mentioned the suspense is going to create an image and
keep audience to memory it. This suspense describes a dark picture that a young
man is writing a strange sentence which keep long and spectral memory in audience’s
mind.
Second, an old witch
said Evan has no lifeline, no soul and never meant to be. It is also suspense. Of
course, these words make Evan’s mom disgust. However, that horrible word
reminds Evan’s mother of the poor experience of born Evan. From dialogue
between Evan and his mother’s, it is easy to knowledge that Evan should have three
brothers, but they all stillbirth before they are born. It seems a sad story.
However, it is a clue obvious. Director will not such clear but useless number
in movie. These three poor brothers must have relationship with the development
of the Evan’s story. So, this suspense creates an amazing suspense which stimulates
audience’s curiosity about the end of the story.
Third, Evan finds a
box about his father under the desk. In that box, Evan finds a certificate of
death about his grandfather. The certification shows his grandfather is a crazy
as same as his father. It is suspense in this movie too. In the movie, Evan
finds he has super power to back to past. In addition Evan’s mother mentions more
than once about the possibility of Evan inheriting his father’s psychological
illness. Combined with these plots, it is not difficult to find that this psychological
illness which actual is super power of fixing the history is hereditary. Obviously,
the certificate of death about Evan’s father makes a surprising image which
guides the audience to think in deep.
The last suspense I consider
is the journal that Evan write in his life. When his mother realizes he has
problem about remember, she begin to something to monitor his memory such as
asking Evan to writes journal. In the movie, we can find journal is the most
important tool for Evan to show his super power. In other word, journal is
suspense in the entire movie. The words in journal re-create the image of the
past experience which Evan forgot in past. These words stimulate the deep
memory in Evan’s mind and push the development of the movie.
Via confirming these
four suspense, we have already realizes the suspense works in Butterfly Effect.
Lukas Blechenbacher used to mention in this research, the language is used to “construct”
something. (Blechenbacher 155) No matter which suspense, they all construct by
language. The language in the movie makes up dialogues which are helpful for
shaping character and push the development of the entire story, such as the
journal suspense. Evan writes journal to monitor the function of memory in his
brain. Journal in the story is not only to record Evan’s life, but as a clue to
push the story go on. So the role of suspense in this movie is created visual
image.
Whatever suspense, the
suspense in these movies is going to express two parts, one is for the life
now, and the other is the life in the past. These two opposite parts consist
the entire meaning of the story. For example, the sentence which Evan wrote in
the beginning is a testament in the surface. But it also stands for Evan’s next
action. He is going to translate the time to the beginning, when he was not
born. He tried to kill himself in that time.
Here is the instance
of the suspense in Black Swan.
Black Swan once to be
won in Oscar night. It is a psychological thriller which talks about a special ballet
show. In this show, the boss of the company wants to revise the old Swan Lake. In
his new show, the role of black and white swan should be one person. As for the
main character, Nina is suited for being a White Swan bus not for Black Swan. In
the process of preparing, the main character—Nina loses herself, and commit suicides
in the end.
Professor says the
dialogue which content in the movie has no power to increase audience’s
emotion. The power in dialogue to change audience’s emotion is still the image.
Lukas Bleichenbacher claims a “representation of intercultural” in his book.
Lukas Bleichenbacher has a deep and wide view of movie dialogue and emotion. In
his opinion, Language is a basic element in movie which “constructed” not only
speakers’ dialogues but the whole story plot. (155) So the emotion which has
ability to change audience’s emotion.
Even though it is a
musical psychological thriller, language is also plays in important role in
suspense. For example, first, boss’s words of the introduction about the Swan
Lake can be regarded as suspense. The boss emphasis the white swan and black
swan should be one person. These words are not only the introduction, but also
indicate the special of this play. It is obvious that the introduction is the
superficial meaning. The deeper meaning is indicated the crazy situation for
main character in the end.
Second, in the end of
the movie, Lily wants to be the main character in the play, so she tried her
best to make trouble for Nina. In the final role, Nina gets some trouble to be
the “White Swan” in the stage. So Lily enters into Nina’s room and talk to
Nina. In their talk, Lily shows her ambitious to the main role in play. During
the argument, Nina shows her decision and emphasizes “it is my turn.” From their
dialogue, we have already felt an evil Nina which is different from the normal
one. She has changed. The evil Nina becomes a picture to let audience to
remember. It is a picture which is sample words, but fearful meaning.
As for the suspense in
this movie, we can find the suspense is complex and hard to be understood in
this movie. It is obvious that there are two meaning in one sentence. Boss
introduces the new play to company. In the surface, the meaning of the sentence
is just simple introduction. This introduction let audience know what will play
in movie and how hard to let one person two opposite characters play in one
play. However, the deeper meaning of the suspense is to indicate the depression
from Nina in the end. In addition, Lily and Nina is dialogue is more dramatic. In
the superficial, it is the dialogue between Lily and Nina. Nina kills Lily in the
end of their conversation. But actually, it is the conversation between
innocent Nina and evil Nina. In the end, the evil Nina kills innocent one. It
is an internal contradiction in Nina’s mind. In the psychological thriller, the
movie always has two parts of meaning. The smart screenwriter combines these
two parts by using suspense. Consequently, the suspense in psychological
thriller can be combined as two opposite parts. The role of these complex
suspense is to make audience confused and engaged into psychological trap
Here is the example
of the suspense in The Six Sense.
A little boy has
ability to communicate with ghost. He is scared of his super power. He doesn’t
know the reason that ghost wants to find him for help. With the help of psychological
doctor, the littler boy begins to help ghost. In the process of help, he overcomes
his fear of ghost, and gets forgiveness from his mother.
A professor of
psychological, Ivan N McCollom refers his main point it his books which is
brief talk about the difference between fiction and reality in movie. He says
the theme of the psychological thriller is related to society which is used to
manager human’s behavior. (992) In addition, another psychological expert, Mark
Jancovich mentions his idea in “Frighteningly
real”:Realism social criticism and the psychological killer in the critical
reception of the late 1940s horror-thrill . The content of the book is talk
about the relationship between realism and fiction in movie. In his opinion, psychological
thriller is not scary. It just shows the deep meaning for reality. (29) And the
psychological themes in psychological thriller became highly valued through
their association with realism. (24) Mark Jancovich states, the closer the
theme to realism, the closer people attack their attention on movie under an
unconscious situation.(29) Here are some suspence in The Sex Sence which is
suited for their opinion.
First, in the
beginning of the movie, the main character Doctor Malcolm Crowe was killed by a
crazy nude man. The crazy nude man says: he knows why people feel afraid when
they are alone. He also mentions that he has cursed. After the nude man
speaking out, he kills Doctor, and himself. In fact, it is a fearful beginning.
Audience understands the surface meaning of what young man says, but audience
didn’t know the deeper meaning of these words. These words crates a crazy but
confuse image which makes audience fear. In this process, the doctor and the
young man are both in reality.
Second, when Cole’s
mother entered into kitchen again, she noticed all drawer was opened which was
different from she did before. She was shocked. She thought Cole did it so she
blamed Core. But when Cole left table, the wet table shows evident that Cole
never left table. The image of wet hands and opened drawer make up a feeling of
thrill.
Third, Cole said, he
can see dead people when he is awake. The dead people don’t know they are dead.
They walk on road as normal people. It is Cole’s secret. As for audience, Cole ’s
word is scare. These words creates scare scene which are used to expressing
fearful content.
It is obvious that
the sentence in this movie is scared. But the sentence is not scared actually. What
makes audience feel scare is not the sentences; it is the image that sentence
creates. Therefore, the sentence has no power to stimulate audience’s emotion. What
affect audience’s emotion is the image what sentence creates.
Finding:
From these three
movies, we have already realized the language plays an important role in movie.
Language makes a dialogue which create visual scene to attack audience’s eye. Evan
and his mother’s dialogue indicate a sad ending of Evan. In surface, the
meaning of sentence is very simple. Everyone can easy to understand it. But we
all know there must something be hidden behind the dialogue. That is the deeper
meaning of the dialogue, which is hard to understand. Actually, the dialogue is
not scared. What makes us feel scare is the image, which dialogue created and
the deeper meaning behind dialogue. The dialogue makes a visual scene, which
enhance the feeling of fearful.
As a good aid for
constructing a good suspense in move, dialogue not only enhance audience’s
fear, but also leads the development of the story. For example, young man who suicide
himself creates a great suspense. He refers an enigma in the beginning which
attaches audience a lot. And the following story is just to narrative his story
again, just in other child. Due to man’s words, audience becomes more
interested in content of the movie. Young man’s words promote story into
climax. Consequently, suspense has ability to lead the development of the whole
story.
Conclusion:
To sum up, the role
of language in movie is making up a series of dialogue to enhance audience’s
fear, and promote story into climax. As for the linguistic suspense, I have
another idea. As I have mentioned before, the suspense is a way of sharing information.
Suspense will not share all the information to audience, but only a litter,
which is similar with Hemingway’s iceberg theory in writing. Actually, suspense
only shares half of information and hides the other half of parts, such as the suspense
in these three movies. In the butterfly effect, the whole movie includes two
parts. One is focus on the accident happened in past, the other pay more
attention on the reality life now. The part of memory is hidden. Movie only
shows audience the part of reality life. In the Six Sense, movie prefers show
the part of life rather than dead. In the movie, young man expresses his
feeling about dead in reality. It is obvious combine death and life. In spirit Black
Swan is also divided into two parts. One is for reality musical show in reality,
the other is stands for fictive scene which main character images. It is no
doubt that movie only focus on one side to express.
However, linguistic
suspense only focus more on one side is not means the linguistic suspense only
focus on one side and ignore the other side. Actually, in psychological
thriller, these two opposite parts really combines with each other and expresses
the story together.
Therefore, we can
assume that the role of suspense in Six Sense, Black Swan and Butterfly Effect
are similar, even the content of suspense is totally different. The suspense in
these movies is expressed by language. Language always has extraordinary and significant
meaning in movie, especially for creating suspense. Language has ability to
create a dialogue between characters in movie. As usual, the story of psychological
thriller always divide story into two opposite parts. With the help of
language, the suspense combines these two opposite parts in movie to enhance audiences
fearful and lead the story enter into climax in order to make a wonderful
story.
Generally speaking,
language has ability to stimulate the emotion, such as evoke audience’s
curiosity. But audience’s emotion is not created by language. It is created by
the image which language creates in dialogue.
The role of the
suspense is linguistic suspense in psychological thriller is created visual images;
lead the development of the whole story which is useful for stimulate audience’s
curiosity.
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