El suspense de la película me puso nervioso.

Because poner + indirect object pronoun + adjective is a very common Spanish pattern meaning to make someone become a certain way.

So:

• me = to me
• puso = made / put
• nervioso = nervous

Literally, it is something like The suspense of the film put me nervous, but in natural English we say The suspense of the film made me nervous.

In this sentence, el suspense de la película is the thing causing the effect, and me shows who is affected.

In English, we often say make someone nervous, but Spanish very often uses poner with emotions or temporary states:

• me puso nervioso = it made me nervous
• me puso triste = it made me sad
• me puso de mal humor = it put me in a bad mood

Using hacer here would usually sound unnatural. For this kind of emotional change, poner is the normal verb.

Puso is the preterite form of poner for él/ella/usted.

Here the subject is el suspense, which is singular, so the verb has to be third-person singular:

• el suspense ... puso

The preterite is used because the sentence describes a completed effect: the suspense caused a reaction.

Also, poner is irregular in the preterite:

• yo puse
• tú pusiste
• él/ella/usted puso
• nosotros pusimos
• vosotros pusisteis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes pusieron

Because me is not the subject. It is the person receiving the effect.

The subject is el suspense de la película, because that is what performs the action of puso.

A good way to test this is to ask: What made me nervous?
Answer: El suspense de la película.

So:

• subject: El suspense de la película
• indirect object: me
• verb: puso
• resulting state: nervioso

Because after poner in this structure, Spanish uses an adjective, not an adverb.

The adjective describes the state the person ends up in:

• me puso nervioso = it made me nervous
• me puso contento = it made me happy
• me puso enfermo = it made me ill

Nerviosamente means nervously, which is an adverb and would describe how someone does something, not the state they are in.

The adjective agrees with the person who became nervous, not with película and not with suspense.

So:

• if the speaker is male: me puso nervioso
• if the speaker is female: me puso nerviosa

Even though película is feminine, that does not matter here. Nervioso/nerviosa describes me.

Because in Spanish the noun is el suspense, so it is treated as masculine.

Grammatical gender does not always match any logical rule, especially with borrowed words. The important thing is to learn the noun together with its article:

• el suspense
• la película

That way you naturally remember the gender.

It means of the movie or from the movie and tells you what kind of suspense we are talking about.

So:

• el suspense = the suspense
• el suspense de la película = the suspense of the movie / the movie’s suspense

It is simply a noun phrase where the second part specifies the first one.

Yes. That would also be correct, and it is very natural.

Compare:

• La película me puso nervioso = The movie made me nervous.
• El suspense de la película me puso nervioso = The suspense of the movie made me nervous.

The original sentence is more specific: it was not just the whole movie, but specifically its suspense.

In Spanish, nouns usually need an article when you are talking about them in a general or specific way.

So el suspense sounds natural, while leaving out the article here would sound incomplete or ungrammatical.

Spanish uses articles more often than English, so the suspense becomes el suspense.

The preterite (puso) presents the reaction as a completed event: the suspense had the effect of making the speaker nervous.

If you used the imperfect (ponía), it would suggest a repeated, ongoing, or background effect:

• El suspense de la película me puso nervioso.
  = The suspense of the movie made me nervous.

• El suspense de la película me ponía nervioso.
  = The suspense of the movie used to make me nervous / was making me nervous.

So the original sentence sounds like a single finished reaction.

Not exactly.

• me puso nervioso focuses on the cause of the change: something made me become nervous.
• estaba nervioso simply describes the state: I was nervous.

So:

• El suspense de la película me puso nervioso = The suspense of the movie made me nervous.
• Estaba nervioso durante la película = I was nervous during the movie.

One describes what caused the feeling; the other just describes the feeling itself.

Yes, el suspense is understood and used, especially when talking about films, books, or thrillers. It is a borrowing from English/French, but it is established enough that many speakers use it naturally.

Depending on context, you might also hear words like:

• la intriga
• la tensión

But el suspense de la película is perfectly understandable and natural.

Yes, but the original order is the most neutral.

You could also say:

• Me puso nervioso el suspense de la película.

This is still correct. It places more emphasis on the result first, then mentions what caused it.

Both mean the same thing, but:

• El suspense de la película me puso nervioso = neutral, straightforward
• Me puso nervioso el suspense de la película = slightly more stylistic or emphatic