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The Difference Between Surprise and Suspense
"Four men [are] sitting at a table playing poker. The scene is rather boring. Suddenly, after 15 minutes, we hear a big bang - it turns out there was a bomb under the table. This is called surprise as it isn’t what we expected would happen. If we watch the same scene again with the important difference that we have seen the bomb being placed under the table and the timer set to 11 AM, and we can see a watch in the background, the same scene becomes very intense and almost unbearable - we are sitting there hoping the timer will fail, the game is interrupted or the hero leaves the table in time, before the blast. This is called suspense."
- Alfred Hitchcock
