How does editing inform the audience and how does sound enhance the tension within The Strangers?- Miss Frisendar - Miss Frisender

"How does editing inform the audience of the generic conventions of the film and enhance the tension within the scene with the use of sound?"

Editing in The Strangers is used to inform the audience that something terrible is going to happen by the use of the generic Thriller conventions.This enhances the tension of the audience throughout the scene with sound by the tones and the pace of the music.

An example of this is when there is a knock at the door and the noise gets louder and faster, you can see the fear in the characters eyes and facial expression which makes her look vulnerable which is conventional to a thriller film as they make females less powerful. When the knock at the door gets faster and more intense there is a fast cut from the character to the door and then the camera zooms in onto the door, this makes the audience feel uncomfortable as you can tell something bad is about to happen; this is conventional towards a thriller film.

Slow editing is also used when the female character is walking towards the doors whilst someone is knocking, the pace of the editing shows us that she is hesitant to open the door which connotes she is scared. The audience can relate to this as when the character is shown as being scared the audience are as well, they are represented as weak which is common in the Thriller genre.

Diegetic sound is used as well during the slow editing shot of the female character as she is moving towards the door you can hear her breathing heavily which connotes she is scared which also makes the audience tensed as they don't know whether she'll open the door and don't know what they are expecting to be there this is also conventional to a Thriller film.