How does Hitchcock thrill his audience?

Paul Morris 10W3

To me ‘thrill’ means when a director uses lots of suspense to build up tension to make you have a feeling of excitement and nervousness because you know that you are going to be jolted from a dream to a nightmare.

Hitchcock uses camera views and shadows to build tension and suspense in all of his films like `psycho` and `the birds`.

In psycho the apartment scene after the panoramic shot of the city Hitchcock shows that it is just a normal Friday afternoon in December and life is going on as usual. He pans in on one specific window the audience think that they are going to see blood and guts (there are red stains on the concrete around the window) but instead we see a couple having a secret affair in a dark and dingy room. Hitchcock makes this affair seem inappropriate and something people would not approve of. He then makes the audience feel that there really isn’t any blood and guts. The start of the suspense is when Marion thinks she is being followed in her car after she stole money from the apartment the audience can hear creepy music and she can see flashbacks in her mind which makes the audience tense. The real threat starts to come in when Marion arrives at Bates motel and has tea with Norman. Hitchcock uses birds and shadows to show a feeling of violence and threat, Norman talk’s about his past life (fears) about an institute he once went to. Marion feels sorry for him and thinks that she is in control but really Hitchcock is lulling the audience into a false sense of security.

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After Norman has talked with Marion she goes back to her room to have a shower and get changed but Norman is watching her through a peep hole in the wall. The audience now feel that Norman is a sexual threat, we are acting as voyeurs because of the camera shot through the peep hole. When Marion gets into the shower she is unsuspecting just enjoying a nice warm shower the camera looks up to the showerhead and the audience can see the steam rising and settling on the white tiles but the only sound is the trickling of water. Then the camera angle changes towards the shower curtain and out of the distance a shadow moves closer and closer towards Marion the audience feel suspense gathering suddenly the shower curtains draw back and the stabbing of the knife starts along with sharp music the audience is shocked.

Psycho was originally filmed in black and white. It makes the film look more old and scary plus colour televisions weren’t made until the 1970s.

In The Birds the climbing frame scene is the most interesting, this is the main scene of this film, in this Melanie sits on a park bench and has a cigarette and there is a front view of Melanie behind her there is a childrens climbing frame with birds flocking together one by one and the audience can hear children chanting from the school next to the climbing frame. The build up of tension in this is like the shower scene in psycho when the camera is looking at the shadow moving closer and the audience can hear the trickling of water. The birds look menacing because they are big and black which represents death.

The phone box scene was a very tense scene for the audience, as the petrol runs along the ground towards the man lighting a cigarette, the people inside the pub try to warn him but he doesn’t hear them and he drops the match onto the petrol and it is set on fire, Melanie then runs into a phone booth which is surrounded by fire and the birds are crashing into it, thudding as they hit the glass, the camera shows the town from a birds eye view in the air, similar to `psycho` when the camera pans into the apartment through the window.

The 1998 version of Psycho is more up to date because it is in colour and the sound is better I think this is more thrilling and understanding than the old one because the blood and acting looks more realistic.

How does Hitchcock thrill his audience?

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