Thriller Techniques - False Plateau

False Plateau 

This is when the audience is lulled into a false sense of security. In other words, in the film, we sense danger and predict something bad is about to arise but we are fooled into assuming this will happen, because when we are expecting danger to occur, it doesn't happen; then we are made to relax when we realise nothing takes place; we are then suddenly shocked when the danger we expected suddenly comes out of nowhere.
An example of false plateau can be seen in this film called 'The Stepfather'.

In this video clip, false plateau is used through the sense that when Michael's mother was standing there panting and she then feels a hand grab her shoulder, we are made to believe that it is the stepfather grabbing her because she screamed. This also made us think it was the stepfather because the sound we heard when Michael touched her shoulder was a loud and sudden noise which also scared the audience; but when the camera shifted to the right we saw that it was Michael and then we became relaxed. After calming down, we then heard and saw the stepfather walking towards Michael, his mother and his girlfriend and this, once again, made the audience jump.