How is Sound Used in Thriller Movies to Create Tension?
Sound in thrillers is possibly the most important aspect of the film to build mood of a scene and cause the audience to react in different ways. Without sound in a film clip it will become hard to interpret what the theme or feel to the clip is. Directors and film makers can use pieces of music specifically made to build on certain moods of a scene called scores, these scores have many variations to give different feels to a film with softer and quiet scores (underscores) made to often build tension.
Firstly, the ambient sound of a room will determine the general feel to a scene, meaning if there was a café holding a lot of people with a lot of conversation occurring in the background, the audience would feel as if all seems normal. When the levels of ambient sound are manipulated it can cause very affective ways of creating tension which is seen in the clip shown below from The Social Network.
In this clip we see that the ambient sound of this open plan office has been controlled to silence, this builds tension in the build up to the argument as it enhances the importance of the dialogue and eliminates distracting sounds. There is also an underscore throughout this scene which I feel adds to the emotional feeling of the topic of conversation/argument. This underscore connotes a feeling of loss and sadness which are feelings similar to that of the main character (Eduardo Saverin) in the scene.
In the film Se7en, tension is built using a number of different conventions of soundscape. In the clip shown below there's effective use of silence, non-diegetic sound and cross cutting.
At the start of the clip there's low ambient sound of just the desert with only the diegetic sound of the flick knife and the box opening, the reaction of Morgan Freeman in this silence builds tension for the audience as the climax starts to begin as it suggests that not all is well. Secondly, there's use of non-diegetic sounds such as the helicopter getting closer and closer to the location, and shouting from Morgan Freeman in a shot of Brad Pitt. These different scenes are also switched in between each other in cross cutting to allow tension to build even more and build up to the final resolution. This causes tension to build as there are different events happening simultaneously which causes confusion and builds up tension for the audience. On top of these techniques there is also a constant underscore with sudden loud sounds which builds tension for reasons previously explained.
There are also other elements to soundscape which can be used to create tension such as foley sounds or sound effects. In the clip shown below from the film Inglorious bastards the use of non-diegetic sound effects and dialogue builds tension very well.
In this clip Brad Pitt explains what is to happen to the Nazi officer, after this is explained we hear a number of loud thuds coming from inside this ominous looking tunnel. This sound effect sounds brutal and violent which builds tension in the audience and foreshadows the outcome of the Nazi officer, this is one way that sound effects can build tension in a scene. I also feel this is effective as the sound is non-diegetic, therefore the audience is left to imagine what is to happen next in the scene. Another element which doesn't involve sound, but I feel is effective i building tension is the use of zoom for the purpose of showing the emotions and feelings going through the officers head seconds before death.
Finally, in the film Reservoir Dogs there is an interesting use of a soundtrack by Stealers Wheel called Stuck In The Middle With You (shown below). Which effectively builds tension in the scene, but in a different way to many normal conventions of a thriller.
At the start of the clip there's general silence in the ambient sound of the clip where we can clearly see that a man is about to get tortured, this is suddenly contrasted by the sound of the radio. The radio itself then describes the next song as a "pop bubble gum favourite" implying its a jolly/happy song. As the song starts to play the man starts to dance and torture the man strapped to the chair (he cuts his ear off). This scene is very cleaver in creating tension as the song completely juxtaposes the actions seen in the clip which actually builds tension once the song is playing as the audience can detect that the song doesn't fit with what they're seeing. You could also say its ironic that the mans ear gets cut off when this happy sounding song comes in.
This shows the different possibilities which I could use in my own thriller opening to build tension. particularly like the idea of cross cutting and using non-diegetic sounds alternating between two different events which are happening simultaneously. This is because I felt that method was one of th most effective ways to build tension, plus would be possible to use in my group with equipment we have.
