Film techniques used to make the viewer uncomfortable/uneasy?

Question

I have heard somewhere that when someone enters from the right side of the screen in a movie, it's supposed to make the viewer feel uncomfortable.

I've also noticed that when things are very matchy (The drapes matching the curtains and the rugs and the lampshade and someone's dress, etc.), it tends to provoke a sense of sadness/depression.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any other ways things are shot to make a certain feeling or emotion evident?

Answer 1

I read a biography on Alfred Hitchcock that gave some of the techniques he used for his thrillers.
He was especially adept with black-and-white film, placing things and/or people in "shadows" to make one feel uneasy. An actor may have part of his face shadowed with only the eyes emphasized.
The camera can be held at an "angle" to make the scene appear slanted to make one uncomfortable.
Of course, playing a musical score that is totally unlike the scene brings a feeling of being disconnected from reality...I think about an old movie called "Kelly's Heroes" where the armored tank is shooting its cannon and destroying everything in site, while playing a cw song by Hank Williams Jr ("All for the Love of Sunshine")

Answer 2

There's a Twilight Zone episode called "The Howling Man" where camera tilts and shadow are used to create discomfort/unease. The episode called "The Silence" got high praise for making a guy seem bad and two-faced by only showing one side of his face throughout most of the episode (this was in fact done because he went out drinking just after they began filming and scraped up one side of his face!).

Answer 3

If the camera is stationary shooting someone in a hallway running towards the audience the enclosed space starts to go backwoods and gets faster .It makes me feel a bit giddy.

In Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, in one scene the windscreen wipers in the car move backward and forward in time with the music.

Answer 4

Blood Sex and the f bomb do it for me!