Unit 1: Selection Vocabulary 1

The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.

And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head.

So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.

Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers—of my sagacity.

In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.

I talked more quickly—more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased.

I’ll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me.

VO continues with anonymous PRISONER explaining how the Detention Center is the real thing.

STEVE (subdued) I’m not hungry.

You don’t turn and wave to any of your friends. It’s all right to acknowledge your mother.

They unshackle STEVE and take him toward door.

The judge is going to rule on a motion that King’s lawyer made to suppress Cruz’s testimony, and a few other things.

Every maker of mystery movies aims at getting the audience on the edge of their seats. The ingredient to keep them there is called “suspense.”

A man has been murdered and all six are possible suspects but no one is sure including the audience.

One of the characters, a young man, is standing in a shadowy room with his back to the door when an unidentified character in a cloak and black hat sneaks in and slugs him into insensibility.

Offhand this may sound like debunking, but I do not believe that puzzling the audience is the essence of suspense.

In order to achieve this, one of the necessary ingredients of the formula is a series of plausible situations with people that are real. When characters are unbelievable you never get suspense, only surprise.