Suspense in film dialogue

Abstract

Since suspense is a highly appealing aesthetic effect, it constitutes a key ingredient in popular films that aim at offering thrilling entertainment. In film dialogue, suspense is created by evoking a sense of expectation and subsequently delaying the contextually required information until this conflict is eventually resolved. In a qualitative approach, the present chapter examines foregrounded pragma-stylistic techniques triggering suspense in Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed 2015 feature film The Hateful Eight, which is a blend of Western and whodunit. As will be demonstrated, sequential organization in dialogue evokes suspense on the basis of inquisitive questions, insert expansion, and pre-expansion. In addition, suspense typically relies on communicative non-cooperation and the non-observance of the conversational maxim of quantity, realized in the forms of silence, evasive replies, vague allusions, and meta-discursive foreshadowing.