Film critic Bilge Ebiri (Vulture, New York Magazine) joins Michael Phillips to test one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous assertions: "There is a distinct difference between suspense and surprise."

Drawing on Hitchcock classics including Sabotage, Rear Window, Notorious, and Psycho, Michael and Bilge explore why the 'Master of Suspense' believed audiences should dread an explosion more than simply be startled by one. They discuss Hitchcock's notorious "grave error" in Sabotage, the enduring power of the night-vision sequence in The Silence of the Lambs, the unresolved terror of Zodiac, and what contemporary filmmakers such as Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger have learned from Hitchcock's approach.

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