Suspense is a feeling of excitement and morbid curiosity caused by a tense moment in a film. Alfred Hitchcock, a legendary horror director defined suspense as the audience expecting something bad to happen but do not know when and have no way of preventing it. It creates an enjoyable sense of fear and adrenaline for the audience, this is one of the main reasons some people find the horror/thriller genre entertaining.
The Thriller Genre relies mostly on suspense, named for 'thrilling' it's audience with fear and suspense. This is usually created with cliffhangers, to leave the audience wondering what will happen next in the story.
Suspense makes the last moments of films the most memorable because they are the scenes which effect the audience most; the building up of tension makes the revelation or image that it results with more effective because the audience expect it to be something shocking or disturbing. Suspense is the 'hook' of many horror films, the audience's curiosity being the reason they keep watching.
This can be achieved by music with an increasing tension, mimicking the audience's heartbeat to create a mood of foreboding and imply fear.
Excellent, detailed research into the issue of suspense.
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