What does Hitchcock mean when he says, "you have suspense when you let the audience play God"?

Hitchcock believes "you have suspense when you let the audience play God." Meaning when there is uncertainty in whats going to happen in a film and the audience makes their own guesses. The writer calls it playing god because the audience know the fate of the characters and what may happen to them in the future.

first of all the mood needs to be defined: it is obviously a mood of deceitful relief and serenity. why? because the cape horn is one of the most violent maritime regions of earth and although it has been left behind, it is a personification of ahab’s delirium and the fact that the end of the passage speaks about it about being “hidden” but “raving” immediately conveys the feeling the calm is not permanent but fleeting.

furthermore, the oxymoron “mild stun'sails” is the first instance of such feeling as the adjective “mild” is associated with “stunned” underscoring the fleeting nature of this “tranquil” moment. and the contrasts keep piling up, with the opposition between “dark den” and “blessed light and air” to end with the final conclusion that leaves the reader with the uneasy knowledge that this is just a reprieve.