How does Alfred Hitchcock create tension and horror in his film Psycho?

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How does Alfred Hitchcock create tension and horror in his film ‘Psycho’?

The famous film ‘Psycho’ is a horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960’s starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The idea of this film was originally taken from a book of Robert Bloch’s; Hitchcock decided to buy the rights to the book for $9000, so people would not be able to read the book and would have to watch it at the cinemas instead, therefore it increases the horror and it would be ruined if the people knew the outcome of the film. At the time, ‘Psycho’ was a very shocking film not only a horrifying film, for example: the stabbing scene where there are continuous stabbing actions, it was also the first film with a flushing toilet and woman half naked on screen.

Furthermore, Hitchcock also took advantage of the lessened censorship laws-the laws were about what could be shown so he decided to make cinemas to sign contrast so people could not come in half way through; only let them in at the beginning of the film. Hitchcock decided to create a black and white film because of several reasons: he wanted to save money because back in the 60’s creating a film would cost a lot of money, the colour of the blood would be too shocking for the audience if it was in colour and he wanted to prove that a black and white film could be as effective as a colour film. In this essay I will be analysing how Hitchcock uses: dramatic Irony, iconography, pathetic fallacy, camera angles, lightening, special effects, music, and sound effects to create tension and horror in his film ‘Psycho’.

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Firstly, I am going to analyse the: setting, lightening and the use of pathetic fallacy in the shower scene. The shower scene takes place in the bathroom of an isolated cabin. Marion goes into the sparkling white bathroom and steps into the shower, this is where pathetic fallacy begins, (pathetic fallacy is the idea of atmosphere and mood being reflected in the weather or setting),the atmosphere is calm, the room is brightly lit ,it is the light  white colour that creates the scene mood; white is a symbolism of pure, safe and clean because the room is brightly lit ...

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