What Modern Filmmakers Can Learn from Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is a master of suspense, and his films are unparalleled by any modern-day director. There have been no directors before and none since that can create such a level of suspense without employing cheap tactics or without coming off as evidently trying too hard.

Hitchcock movies were created in a time when you couldn't rely on great special effects to bring a movie to life with bad or non-existent plot. In a way, this almost worked toward Hitchcock's advantage. A good example of this is evident in his iconic film Psycho. Since he couldn't show a brutal stabbing, he used peripheral shots of blood falling on the shower floor or her hand grasping at the wall and screaming. Nowadays, a brutal stabbing is the least of what you should expect to see in a murder thriller. Too many directors focus on making a stabbing look gory and realistic, and they ignore aspects of the story that make a film truly suspenseful.

Another lesson to be learned from Hitchcock films is that suspense does not always have to come from impending danger. A film like Hitchcock's Rear Window keeps you on the edge of your seat by just giving you a glimpse of something that maybe you're not supposed to be watching. Making the audience feel like they're doing something they shouldn't be doing can be suspenseful, even if there is no source of danger, just the crazy notion that your neighbor might have done something horrible.

Hitchcock succeeds at tapping into different emotions in the audience that can create fear and anxiety. That is another area in which Hitchcock excelled and modern directors fail at. Hitchcock films create a general air of suspense. Modern films focus on giving you jumpy moments, which can be great for one or two seconds, but after that you are too removed from the movie. Hitchcock uses the camera to really bring you into the film and to the edge of your seat.

It is hard to get through a Hitchcock film without feeling uneasy and often, more like completely anxious. Your average suspense film in modern day can only aspire to do even half that. Modern thriller directors could really benefit from studying the master of suspense. With our current technology, realism in movies can perfectly complement a well crafted fearful mood. But it is important to emphasize the creation of anxiety to create a successful suspense classic, and that is something that no one has ever done better than Hitchcock.