Question about creating suspense.

A good suspenseful score will help.

It helps, but as I get older I am not as fooled by the scores. Sure the score is suspensful but I analyze the scenes a lot more now, and compare the suspense to previous scenes. I'm not sure if most do that though.

well of course there are many more factors.

if you've analyzed it, use your analysis..

I did use it, but I'm at a road block on this one.

There are tons of reasons for script decisions in TV. The actors choose to not renew their contracts, so they must be written out. Dealing with Charlie Sheen's departure is an example when something happens that demands a major re-thinking.

It's not always about planned drama but accomodating "real-life" complications into an ongoing "series". What to do when an actor takes an unexpected hiatus? Movies don't have that issue usually. Dennis Hopper is a big name. A writer doesn't kill off a big name actor unless he is told to do so at a studio. Please note it was a season finale.

Yeah that kinda makes sense. Has the same thing been done in any movies though too, that might make better examples?

Ok,

Creating suspense in films with sound.

Filling the dark of the screen with sounds.

A lot of suspense can come from what the audience doesn't see (and thus fills in the void of their minds you created with something else - for example, their worst fears). An example of this is when a protagonist is walking through a graveyard at night and you place a key light on him and leave his surroundings pitch black or dark - sound can emanate from those areas before you see a monster or zombie or villain. This causes tension - a footstep.

This can also be used as the "doubleback" effect where you make something seem creepy, for example a footstep and rustle is heard behind the character and he turns around quickly and frightened only to see his best friend come out of the darkness. But then a split second later after the audience is relieved it's only the character's best friend the music stings and startles the audience when the REAL villain pops out and cuts their throat or whatever.

Examples of filling darkness with sound is found in modern movies which are some of the best sound-created suspense scenes in cinema history:

My personal favorite is No Country for Old Men.

They came up with the idea of the beeping tracking device that the main villain used to track his case of money. You are introduced to this device early in the film.

Then, later, when the main character is inside a hotel room, he hears an eerie beeping from down the hallway. The villain is not shown on screen at all until the very last part of the scene, but you know it's the villain. The villain gets closer to the door, the beeping gets louder. The villain now steps directly outside the door and the beeping is right there across from the character and the door and the audience is suspended in utter suspense about what will happen next because they know the villain is right outside the door but the main character doesn't necessarily know who it is. Complete genius way of using sound to create suspense.

Another classic example is the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. The first thing you hear is the low thunderous booms of his footsteps approaching and the rippling water from the cup on the dashboard of the car - pure genius sound design work.

Sound can also be used in more subtle ways to make an audience on edge. For example, The Hurt Locker used sirens, harsh jet bys and older cars driving by which were harsh and startled the audience and put them on edge in the opening scene and practically every other bomb scene in the movie past that. This is a good subliminal way of choosing environmental sounds to create a mood in a scene in a movie.

A fog machine would be nice way to add suspense!