The character is small on one side of the frame, and the rest is left as empty darkness or wall. The audience keeps scanning the empty part, afraid something will come out of it.
A character alone, dark rooms and corridors, right before a jump scare.
Negative space dread, a little girl stands at the far right edge of a huge dim empty living room, vast dark empty space filling the left two thirds of the frame, locked-off camera, wide 24mm lens, cold blue night light, uneasy mood, 6-second shot.
wide static shot, a woman sits small in the lower right corner of the frame, a large dark empty doorway fills the left side, nothing moves, long silence
Sinister (2012) — While the hero watches old film reels, the audience's eyes keep drifting to the darkness behind him (Den of Geek) · It Follows (2014) — At some point the audience is looking at the empty space around the lead rather than at the lead (Den of Geek)
Den of Geek — Modern Horror Movies & the Rise of Negative Space