Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho

Examining 2 scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s psycho and how he creates suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time. In 1960 he produced ‘psycho’ – the home to the most iconic scene of all time- the shower scene. It is so iconic that even if you haven’t seen the film yourself you would have probably heard about it.

But first I want to talk about a scene that happens earlier. From the point where Marion arrives at the the bates motel, straight away you can tell that the vibe isn't quite right. When Marion arrives, it is raining heavily, there are no other cars parked in the car park and no lights appear to be on in the rooms, indicating there is nobody occupying the rooms.

When Marion checks into the motel The scene begins with what appears to be an innocent invitation from Norman to Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the unsuspecting guest at the Bates Motel, to come into "the parlour." The use of the word parlour--as in "'come into my parlour" said the spider to the fly--establishes the tenor of the scene. The significance of this brief line becomes all the more apparent at the end of the film when Norman's "mother", who has by now consumed Norman's mind and soul, looks directly into the camera and says that "she" would not "even hurt a fly."

Marion accepts the invitation to sit with him in his parlour. Hitchcock sets up the room so it looks barely big enough for two chairs, there is one source of light, the Tiffany lamp on the lamp table. this light is key to the scene. Hitchcock positions the characters to that Marion is seated behind the light so her- like the lamp are lit up with a warm glow, despite the fact she is not as innocent and she looks. However bates is harshly lit in the corner of the room- his face is dark and shadowed. I also noticed that behind Marion there is a round oval picture frame and behind Bates there are angular picture frames. Indicating that Bates' character is harsh and blunt whereas Marion's character is soft, innocent and gentle.

These are all prime examples of how Hitchcock creates suspense. The audience knows something isn't quite right. Even without a trained eye to notice the picture frames and the lighting, subconsciously this information will go into every single one of the audience's heads and build the suspense and tension for them.

Now i want to talk about the very famous and iconic scene, everybody knows about. Hitchcock creates suspense very well by the way he uses the camera position, angles, movement and shots and lighting when he wants to shock his audience or create suspense. He also uses suspense building music with lots of bowed string instruments for example violins and cellos, with sharp choppy high pitched notes to add to the shock of what the audience has just witnessed. He used music like this when Marion Crane got brutally murdered, when the murderer is sneaking up on her, it is silent, all that can be heard is the water from the shower and all that can be seen is an unaware Marion Crane and someone’s shadows behind the shower curtain, no music is played here because I think Hitchcock wanted the audience to build the suspense up themselves, to let their imagination run wild for what they should think is about to happen, due to Hitchcocks decisions earlier in the film. To make Norman bates look suspicious to make everything seem not quite right about the motel Marion is staying at.

Hitchcock, quite abruptly kills off the main character, that had never been done before. it would leave questions in the audiences heads, for example, how is the film going to carry on with know lead? This would create curiosity but tension and suspense at the same time. at the time when this film came out, viewers couldn't believe what had happened.

The scene runs for 3 minutes, includes 50 cuts and 77 camera angles. The fast cuts and dramatic close ups make the scene seem more violent and controlled than a wider shot would have done. The way that Hitchcock had the camera taking on almost a point of view shot in the killers perspective made the scene even more dramatic as it took all control away from the lead character that the audience has come to understand and sympathise with. the vulnerability of Marion is really emphasised here. throughout the film she has been the strong one, the lead, the powerful one and its just swapped to someone the audience barely knows in a matter of seconds.

To conclude, the way that Hitchcock creates suspense and tension is by using very clever fast cuts, carefully selected camera angles, music and scenery. however since 1960 technology has been brought on and improved, so if Hitchcock was to make this film again today, the murder would be a lot more convincing, although its not about the murder as such, what creates the shock and suspense is like I said everything else that helps build up to that point of the murder.