About 3 weeks later, there are concerns for Marion from her lover, Sam Loomis and her mother. Together they hire a secret agent called Detective Aborghast, he investigates around all the local motels, until he comes across the ‘Bates Mote’, he asks Norman Bates some questions about Marion, Norman Bates is nervous when Aborghast is directing the questions to him. He went back later on that evening and hammers on the door. He does not get an answer so he goes in the house to have a snoop around, just before the foot of the stairs, he is brutally murdered by what appears to be an old women.
Sam Loomis and Mrs. Crane do not get a reply from Aborghast and they are very worried about him. Together they hire a room in the Bates Motel and search the cabin number 1, where Marion stay and discover vital clues to show that she has been there. They go up into the house to try and get more clues.
Sam keeps Norman Bates happy whilst Mrs Crane goes to investigate in the house. But she has been gone a while, nearly half an hour now and Norman notices that. He goes back in the house, dresses up as a woman and begins to hunt for Mrs Crane, he then finds her in the cellar. He then proceeds to pull out an enormous knife, and just when you thing Mrs Crane has had it, Sam gets there in the nick of time and grabs his arm. He is later taken to prison and questioned; the car was lifted out of the swamp along with Marion and the $40,000.
One of the reasons why ‘Psycho’ had such an impact on his first audience was because of together, the un-expectancy from the audience, they were completely unaware of what they were going to see, and the very skilful way Alfred Hitchcock directed the scenes, particularly what he placed in the background (the mise-en-scene).
Psycho - the first time
Audiences were silent and shaken up as they walked out of the cinema; this was because of a number of reasons.
Alfred Hitchcock manipulates his audience; by giving them an image that Norman Bates’ mother is alive. He does this by describing Norman Bates as being dominated by his mother. This is not saying the truth about the mother being dead, but does not lie either. Normans mother is dead, but is alive in the mind of Norman. She is therefore dominating Normans mind. Alfred Hitchcock makes us think that the mother was alive throughout the film, and can potentially be the killer. She is the killer in the film, but she isn’t, because it’s Norman in disguise. One of the most important scenes in the film that is to make the audience ‘know’ that the mother is alive, is when Norman is carrying the body to the basement, you can hear the mother screaming and shouting, so that makes the audience think that she is alive, when in fact, the body is rotten.
The music is very important too, this music is very sinister, high pitched and has high tempo. The music adds a lot of tension and suspense in the audience. In the film, sometimes music will increase tempo, volume or will change. In some parts of the film sinister music is played. This adds tension and also keeps the audience in suspense because the audience knows that something will happen in that part.
Conclusion
One of the reasons why Psycho has such an impact on its audience was because of the manipulation of them, very cleverly by Alfred Hitchcock, by playing with your mind, and making you think, and actually believe things, that are of course not true.
I watched Psycho, and I think it is one of the best films I have ever seen, in terms of keeping myself in suspense, and the tension of the film is immense, even though it was an old film, it is still very thrilling. In those days audiences weren’t used to seeing naked flesh (in the shower scene) or blood, so it was a first, and a classic film.
The famous Bates Motel, and Norman’s house in the backdrop.
Norman Bates.
