Rear Window - Jen Peaslee

The sound in Rear Window was pretty striking. It kept occurring to me that a lot of the sounds going on weren't necessarily things that Jeff wouldn't actually be able to hear because of the distance - things like Mr. Thorwald talking on the phone a little while before murdering his wife. We can hear the murmur of his words, but oddly enough, when his wife comes out and starts yelling at him, her voice is barely any louder.

Regardless, what I liked most about the film was the near absence of sound in particularly important places. For instance, when Jeff is sleeping and we heard the sound of the wife getting murdered. Before that, there was just some traffic - totally normal on such a night. But Mrs. Thorwald's scream shatters the atmosphere, leaving the audience feeling tense with the completely normal sounds that follow.

An even more enjoyable use of sound is at the very end, when Thorwald comes for Jeff. Ooooh, that was creepy. I was leaning forward in my seat, freaking out. It was so quiet but you knew exactly what was happening, which made me imagine how I would react in such a situation (probably by getting murdered). You still hear the light background noise of car horns and whatnot, but steps slowly and purposefully climb the stairs, leaving the audience (and Jeff) thinking, "Oh crap, oh crap, what do I do?" That was way more effective than adding scary music would have been, which I feel is something that a lot of modern-day thrillers rely on far too much. Putting even more emphasis on the importance of certain sounds in this scene, particularly after Thorwald entered the room, was how it was shot in almost total darkness. You could barely see the characters, but you could certainly hear them.