“Tension. It’s a difficult thing to create. Take one of the most tension-filled scenes in movie history: the chest-burster sequence in Alien. Know why it works so well? Sure, the effects, acting and directing are all superb, but it’s the pacing. Specifically, the dining hall scene that precedes it. To create real tension, you need two things: periods of calm to allow the audience to breathe, and a sense of hope; that maybe, just maybe, things will be all right. Once the crew of the Nostromo pull the face-hugger from William Hurt’s face, you sense he’s done-for. But the fact that he looks healthy and is pictured having a meal with his pals allows you to breathe and lower your guard. You begin to experience a glimmer of hope that maybe he’ll be fine. So when the alien bursts through his chest a short while later, it is absolutely horrifying. But the dining scene is what makes it. Valborg is a German death-doom band that also deals in tension.” The birth and death of tension.
