Suspense and Tension are important in other types of stories, but in Mystery, Thriller or Horror stories, suspense and tension are vital and your story will fail without these two elements.
The 2008 remake, of Prom Night is an example of a horror film that seems to go out of its way to ruin any anticipation, suspense or tension.
Writer J.S. Cardone and director Nelson McCormick created a horror film that would have worked better if they had just made a teen comedy about a prom. They reveal the killer within the first few minutes of the film, which hamstrings the entire movie from that moment forward. The audience now has no sense of suspense, mystery, tension, or anticipation when thinking about the killer. This also weakens any other moments of suspense when he actually goes about his murder spree.
The producers of Prom Night did not want an R rating like the original film, but wanted a PG-13 rating to attract the teenage girl target audience and that is a good business decision because the teenage female goes to the movies more than any other demographic group. But that limits what can go into your scary story and is not good for making a horror film. The film makers know going in that they will have no graphic violence and no intense suspense and that means little tension or anticipation.
The writer and director spend more time and create more suspense and tension on who will win prom queen than on the main plot of the killer running around stabbing teenagers. I almost think they had a copy of the script for the teen movie Prom and tried to shoehorn the spree killer elements into that script and the results were this tepid Prom Night remake.
Without a focus on the main plot and a concerted effort to create anticipation, tension and suspense in every scene, the film had little chance of connecting with the audience. We didn’t care who the killer was or why he was doing it, because we were told early on and it wasn’t very interesting. We didn’t care if the characters lived or died, because the filmmakers gave the audience no reason to feel anticipation, suspense or tension.
Scene creation is all about conflict. Two characters that have opposite goals enter a scene and the writer must use suspense and tension to keep the action interesting. If the characters come to an agreement at once, then that is a boring scene. If the conflict goes on too long with no resolution, then that too can be boring. A balance must be struck between the give and take of the characters. The audience or reader must be kept in a sense of anticipation of the outcome of the scene. The tension and suspense that the writer creates in the scene pulls the audience along through the scene into the next scene and the next. The interaction of the characters reveal character and moves the plot along.
As a writer you must always look for ways to add suspense and tension in your story and the individual scenes. The audience expects and appreciates these touches and your screenplay or story will benefit greatly. The story will be a page turner and the script with have momentum because the reader or audience with be totally captured by the characters and events. You have captured their attention because they will be anticipating what happens next through the use of tension and suspense.
Screen Writer Ink
Fade In Is Just The Beginning