Hitchcocks 'Maguffin'

A 'Maguffin' is a plot device that advances the story and involves the charactors, but has little relevence to the story.

''We have a name in the sudio and we call it the ''Macguffin''. It is the element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.''
-Alfred Hitchcock


The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with one another or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state.
Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitarty character where characters must resolve conflicts in an effort to understand something that has happened to them.