Analysing Psyhco: the pleasure of fear(TM). How does Hitchcock build tension and create suspense and terror through the language of film?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Analysing Psyhco: 'the pleasure of fear'. How does Hitchcock build tension and create suspense and terror through the language of film? Refer to three scenes in detail.

Films were invented in 1895, and Psycho was released in 1960 so films were a recent phenomena. Hitchcock first worked in film in 1920, but this was silent film and he produced captions to go with the picture of the screen. When he made Psycho, colour film had been invented but he chose to film it in black and white. It was going against the current trends of cinema and it was also cheaper. But he used to conceal things and make the scenes on screen look more dramatic and it was very effective. Using black and white made the seeing blood softer for the sense and made the violence stylised. Bernard Herrmann, who composed the music for Psycho said 'I felt I was able to complement the black and white photography of the film with black and white sound'. The music in the film consisted of only string instruments, which were usually used for romantic films not horror - so again Hitchcock was going against conventions again. The cords used in