Based on a 1902 French play titled At the Telephone, Suspense serves as one of the earlier film examples of a home invasion thriller. Though a brief one-reeler, through the use of astonishingly inventive filmic techniques including a triptych split screen sequence, dynamic and unexpected camera angles and movements, brilliant use of mirrors, and a chillingly blank performance from the invader, Suspense produces more tension and dread in its short run time than most films do in 90 min. Brought to life by life and filmmaking partners Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley while they were working for Edwin S. Porter at New York’s Rex Motion Picture Company, Suspense will not only keep you gripping your armrests, but will also stick in your mind forever as you see its far reaching influence as a formative horror film that arguably created much of the visual storytelling language still used to this day within the genre and beyond.