She arrives at the car dealership with the main intention of swapping the car to loose the policeman. She is met by the car salesman who immediately says, “I don’t want any trouble ma’am”, she looks worried and replies in a panicky, innocent manner, “You know what they say; the first customer of the day is always trouble”. The music relaxes as does Marion. This comment by the car salesman is dramatic irony used by the director to keep the audience interested. It is ironic due to the fact that she is trouble and the salesman does not know it. But then her plans go amiss when she spots the policeman gazing across the road at her. She panics. The discordant, edgy music comes into play and echoes Marian’s fears. She fleas to the toilet to count out her money and move on quickly to loose her stalker.
Along with the increasing tempo of the music, the weather makes the audience uneasy. This use of pathetic fallacy creates a threatening mood which reflects the mood throughout the remainder of the scene. She decides she can drive no longer and stops at the Bates Motel. The audience knows that this is an unfavourable place to be by the way the sign suddenly looms out of the dark and mist. The Bates Mansion is also a daunting image. Norman Bates however dispels these feelings by being a likeable and shy young man. During his conversation with Marion, Norman helps her regain her freedom of choice in her life, and helps her decide to do the right thing and return the money. When Norman describes his own life this helps Marion. ‘We are all in our private trap’ he says. Marion sees how far she has lapsed into confusion, and resolves to return to phoenix and return the money. The audience, seen the entire film through the eyes of Marion, is intent on following her story, and is lulled into a false sense of security by the belief that in her good has triumphed and everything will now sort itself out.
This brings the audience to the parlour scene. Although the interesting part in this scene is not the way that Hitchcock builds up tension or horror but the use of ironic lines and the irony in the mise en scene. The way that Norman is seen by the audience changes dramatically in this scene. Firstly we find out how protective ‘mother is of him’ and also how protective he is of ‘mother’. This becomes clear after ‘mother’ has a row with Norman in the house. Norman also protects Mother after a hint was given by Marion that perhaps ‘mother ’should be sent to a mental institution. Defending Mother, Norman replies in a threatening tone that, ’It’s not as if mother were a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t You?’ Norman also suggests that ‘mother’ is completely harmless. The fact that Norman is readily discussing mother and has had a conversation with her tricks the audience into thinking that ‘Mother’ is alive. Neither is the audience expecting mother to go and kill anyone because she is supposedly harmless.
The mise en scene of this particular scene is very interesting there are two birds of prey there (the owl and the crow) which both represent death. The birds are also stuffed to keep them new, the same as he has done to his mother. This is a very effective use of ironic mise scene. The position of the birds is also particularly interesting they are towering over Marion suggesting perhaps that death is going to come to her soon, although at the time we do not notice this or think it through enough to guess that she is going to get killed.
Marion leaves the parlour and retreats to her cabin. At this point Hitchcock has slowed down the tempo of the film purposefully, so that the audience will not expect the sudden death of Marion. Norman is then seen peering through a hole in the wall at Marian getting changed. This implies that the main point of this film is not the stolen money, but love and sex. I believe this because Marian stole the money in the first place so that she could live her happy life with her lover.
Rhythmic music is used whilst the audience pleasantly views the main character of the film in the shower. As she is one of the biggest stars of her day and also advertised as the star/main actor in the film the audience is fooled into thinking that one third of the way through a ‘detective thriller’ she is highly unlikely to be killed. However Hitchcock had put this in to add extra surprise to her gruesome death.
When ‘Mother’ enters the bathroom we see just her shadow creep up out of the room next door. However the cleverly planned dim lighting and the use of the shower curtain obscured any chance that the figure could have been a man and instead looked to be smaller. Also the light from the back made the killer to look like they had short curly hair. The audiences instant reaction is to yell out to Marion to turn round, proving the director has established a relationship between Marian and the audience. As ‘mother’ gets closer to Marion, the sounds gradually get louder and more discordant building up tension inside us. When mother finally gets to the shower it takes 45 seconds to kill Marion which on camera took 8 days to film due to Hitchcock’s want for perfection. The scene was particularly difficult to film because at the time no nudity was allowed nor would a knife touching human flesh be allowed. Hitchcock however got round this by clever editing. You never actually see the murder but it is so obviously happening that your mind puts the jigsaw together to make the story fit.
The excellent variety of angles shown in the footage is astonishing and makes you feel ‘lost’ because of the fast editing. The fast editing makes the audience feel that the attack was particularly sudden and brutal and also leaves the audience shocked who less than a minute ago were sitting in a detective thriller comfortably eating there popcorn and are now sitting in the most horrific horror movie that they had ever seen back then. More facts about this scene; the director used chocolate sauce as blood yet still managed to make it look incredibly realistic due to the black and white filming and also that 1 woman saw Marion breathe when she was dead after being murdered so Hitchcock had to re-shoot that piece such was his want for perfection in this scene.
After the murderer has departed the audience follows the blood as it swirls down to the plughole, symbolising the last life of their heroine being washed away. The plughole fades into a close up still of Marion’s eye, and the camera then pans out to take in the whole bloody and the shocking scene. The evidence of the hurried and brutal attack lies in the chaotic bathroom.
Norman is the next character that the audience see after the death of Marion. Since now the story cannot be about her escaping to live happily ever after with her lover, they begin to relate to Norman. Even though he is covering up a horrific crime, we, the audience, feel anxious for him that he will tidy up all the evidence and complete his job before anyone can find him out. In the same way that we worried for Marion when she was seen by her boss, we worry for Norman when the car stops sinking into the bog, and breathe a sigh of release when it does finally disappear.
When Norman goes upstairs to carry down his mother is was necessary for Hitchcock to have the camera raised high so that the face of the mother could not be discerned. If it had suddenly been cut to a high shot when Norman brought his mother out of the room the audience would have thought Hitchcock was trying deliberately to hide the Mother’s face, so it was done craftily. The camera is raised while Norman was walking up the stairs, and continues to rise after he has gone into the room. While the conversation with the mother occurs the camera rises so that when Norman returns carrying his mother the audience is not suspicious as to why the camera is so high. We hear him say, "Mother, I've got to take you down to the cellar. They're snooping around." This also gives an excuse for having Norman carry the body instead of his mother walking herself. As the camera gets up on top of the door, the camera turns and looks back down the stairs again to watch them descend. Hitchcock uses the camera to deceive the eyes of the audience and make it seem that Mother is alive due to Norman moving down the stairs and causing her leg to move in a kicking motion.
The music at the beginning of the last and final scene lulls the audience into a false sense of security. It is calm, gentle and almost soothing, making the audience think that there is nothing to worry about, she find the mother and everything will work out fine.
As she walks towards the house it looks much more sinister than the motel itself and the fact that there are steps going up to it and it is on raised ground seem to add an edge to it’s spookiness. The fact that the house looks so spooky immediately puts the audience on the edge of their seats and they feel incredibly nervous for Lila. The camera angle from Lila’s point of view makes the audience feel that they themselves are there and are about to enter that spooky house.
Lila enters the house, While Sam keeps Norman occupied. The camera swaps from one to the other. While it does the audience is left, wanting to know what is happening off screen. Lila stumbles into Mother’s room. The music is loud, the audience is hooked. She jumps. The sudden movement and the gripping music hold the audiences attention. Then the music slows, the audience sees that it is only her reflection and there is nothing to worry about. Moving on she finds Norman’s room, it appears to have been left relatively untouched since that time that mother died which also makes the audience feel as though something is not quite right.
Norman breaks free from Sam after a scuffle. He enters the house through the open door. Meanwhile Lila is walking down the steps. The audience is biting their finger nails, they know that he is capable of harming Lila after the incident with Sam. She goes closer and closer to mother, as the audience gradually get more and more nervous. Eventually when she reaches mother she turns the chair round only to find that there is a skeleton on it. You would think that this would calm down the audience but in fact it heightens the tension as the audience sees how all of the previous scenes fit together and make sense. The audience now knows that Norman is the killer and that he is inevitably going to find Lila especially after she screamed at the sight of the skeleton. The tension heightens again and then up another level when Norman (dressed as mother) enters the room. However Sam then disarms Norman and the atmosphere relaxes slightly as Hitchcock gives time to the audience to recover.
In my opinion this film is one of the greatest suspense horror films of all time. It uses devices that actually fooled me into thinking what the director wanted me to think, unlike a lot of suspense films today. One thing I liked was that the film was in black and white and on a very tight budget because it proves that a best selling movie does not need millions of pounds spent on it to succeed. I also like the gothic theme that the old house gave to the film; it really creates extra suspense just by the looks. I like the film because however many times I watch it, I get the same thrills over and over again, I never get bored of seeing it and each time I watch it I see something new.