Let 'Em Play God

"Let 'Em Play God"

• Every maker of mystery movies aims at getting the audience on the edge of their seats. The ingredient to keep them there is called “suspense”.
• You have suspense when you let the audience play God.
• If the audience does know, if they have been told all the secrets that the characters do not know they’ll work like the devil for you because they know what fate is facing the poor actors. That is what is known as “playing God”. That is suspense.
• One of the necessary ingredients of the formula is a series of plausible situations with people that are real. When characters are unbelievable you never get real suspense, only surprise.
• It is important in a story with sinister implications to use counterpoint, great contrast between situation and background.