Well, not “suspense” per se, but another Hitchcock moment in the movies (the guy was a supergenius).
It’s in “Psycho” right after the shower scene when the camera is up CLOSE on the dead eye, s l o w l y panning out until – ugh, you suddenly realize what in fact it IS that the camera is intensely focused on.
Being a “hiding under the covers for the scary parts” kinda person, when I first saw that movie, I was very upset that I was “tricked” into looking at a real scary part of the movie!
The Haunting of Hill House. The original, not the abortion they filmed later.
The spirit going all through the house. Dead silence. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose right outside their door. Silence again. Then the whole damn door bulges in, straining hinges and locks, creaking from the strain.
I die each time.
Later, more noises — a baby crying. Julie Harris grabs the hand of her friend, trying to make no noise at all, afraid to draw the thing towards them. But the baby crying is getting to her; she cannot stand for a child to be hurt. Finally she screams out, “Stop it!!!” and her friend wakes from a sound sleep — across the room. Harris (her character, actually) looks at her hand in horror. “Whose hand was I holding?”
My stomach heaves every time.
The finale of Back to the Future always gets me. I’ve seen it so many times that I know the whole thing, lines, camera movements, and all, and I still am on tenterhooks the whole time.
Okay, you got me. I just wanted to say “tenterhooks”
For suspense scenes in “Psycho,” I prefer the one where Martin Balsam is sloooooowly climbing the staircase in the old house.
The shower scene is great but, again, it’s the SURPRISE that makes it memorable. By the time Arbogast makes his appearance and enters the house, you KNOW somebody just awful is in there and he’d better watch out for his brisket.
There are more wonderful “jump scenes” later when Vera Miles goes into the house, of course, but my favorite is in REPULSION when Catherine Deneuve is innocently closing the mirrored wardrobe door and for a spilt-second you SEE A MAN standing behind her. Of course, there is no man, and Cath is violently insane, but you jump out of your seat as the mirror swings past.
Me too, me too. I like the new version too, though, except that they left out two of my favorite lines(sleeping on her side, and the christmas cards to New England Relatives.) It’s like the orginal is an outline of the new one, sort of connected, but not tightly…
I may earn boos and hisses, but I thought the Blair Witch Project was very suspenseful the first time I saw it.
An American Werewolf in London, right after the main character wakes up from his nightmare of the monsters attacking his family in their home, and the nurse opens the curtains to get him some fresh air.