When the money comes into the film it is very tempting. That large amount in notes has more affect on the audience than if it were a cheque. You want to be Marion so you can take it. There is a close up of the money on her bed. The camera pans around the room to reveal an open suitcase. Marion has fallen for her temptations and is taking the money. There are a lot of close up shots of the money in this film. This film portrays rather a lot of misogyny e.g. the person who steals the money is a women, the first person to die is a women and the whole reason she dies is because of another women, Normans mother.
The ghostly echoes of the voices and the music by Bernard Herrmann combine to produce a brilliant effect used by Alfred Hitchcock. They mix to create a frustrated atmosphere. The audiences also start to feel frustrated and they want Marion to get out of the traffic and leave town. When Marion sees her boss I’m sure the viewer at home or in the cinema slouched attempting to hide from him unknowingly. When people are watching films it is all they concentrate on, nothing else is visible to the audience, just the screen. The way Hitchcock uses the camera as the actors/actresses eyes make the audience believe that they are that person. This technique was made famous in Hitchcock’s 1954 masterpiece ‘Rear Window’ which was also all about voyeurism.
Once she drives away the music is playing again quite low. When she closes her eyes, the camera fades out, the audiences don’t know if she has had an accident, another little piece of suspense by Hitchcock.
When the screen fades back in it is the scene when the Policeman is introduced and he confronts Marion. This scene becomes ironic when the Policeman suggests she stay the night in a Motel, this suggestion is the reason for the first murder of the film. When Marion is driving off, the Policeman in his car follows her for a long time. Finally at one point the Police car turns off onto a different road. The audiences sigh with relief.
Once Marion has met the salesman at the used car lot (California Charlie) he says “I’m in no mood for trouble,’’ “ There’s a saying the first customer is always the most trouble.’’ This is a great line because the viewer immediately thinks he knew something, and so does Marion. When Marion is in the ladies room sorting out her money there is a mirror on the wall, the mirror is cutting half of her body off in the reflection, again here is duality on Marion’s part, Marion and the money are both in this shot, stealing the money is something she has done wrong, the Mirror is reflecting her bad side. Marion buys the car and leaves. The music is playing again and the day is turning to night, Marion has been driving for a long time. It starts to rain and the windscreen wipers are like the cuts of a knife with the music. The blur of other cars lights coming towards Marion’s car through the rain also cloud her view. With the ghostly thoughts in her head again, the annoying car lights and the really heavy rain, the audiences should be getting very restless and anxious to get out of the rain.
When Marion is frustrated, anxious, nervous or scared there always seem to be a close up of her face. Reverse shot is used a lot in this film for suspense. Seeing things through the eyes of Marion, Norman and other people such as the policeman help you to understand more about the film. Seeing things through the eyes of Marion help you to understand how scared she is and the reason for it. The policeman’s view let you see why he is suspicious of her. Normans view and the way he acts around people tell you that there is something wrong with him. Tony Perkins acting in this film has got to be the single best acting performance in a horror film ever. This is why the remake by Gus Van Sant wasn’t a success. Even though it was shot for shot, that didn’t change anything because it was the acting that made this film so unique in the horror genre, the chemistry between Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins was too great to be replicated by Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. In the remake the colours took away some of the creepiness of the film.
When Marion is checking into the ‘’Bates Motel’’, Norman is choosing which cabin key to give her. He reaches for cabin key 3 then stops himself and reaches for number 1, the audience would be wondering why he has chosen that specific key. When Marion is in her Cabin there is another close up of the money.
Norman’s hobby is taxidermy and as he is sitting down eating there are birds of prey all around him. It is in this scene that three very famous lines in the film are spoken. They are, ‘’Mother isn’t feeling quite herself today’’, ‘‘we all go a little mad sometimes’’ and the other one being ‘’a boys best friend is his mother’’. These lines are a little bit of dark comedy in the film and show a little of Normans psychotic side. When Marion and Norman are speaking to each other and eating they are in the parlour, this reminds me of the children’s rhyme ‘’come into my parlour said the spider to the fly’’. It’s as if Norman is the predator and Marion is victim, which turns out later to be true. In the parlour the camera moves to a low shot at the side of Norman. In the top left hand corner of the shot you can see an owl with huge wings, and the shadow is very large. This is a very scary image and it is linked with voyeurism the way it is watching over them. It looks as if the owl is staring directly at you. Hitchcock is known for never looking through the camera, he would know exactly what would be seen on film, his eye became the lens. When Marion mentions to Norman about the prospect of putting his mother in ‘’some place’’, he immediately thinks of a mental institution. His tone of voice changes and the music is very low. He speaks much quicker and is almost shouting. He eventually calms himself down. This is very disturbing, why does he get so angry when a mental institution is mentioned? A close up on Normans face reveals he is staring straight at Marion. Once Marion leaves Normans darker side is shown. He knows she is going to take a shower and he walks over to the picture with the peephole behind it. As he walks over to it, the shadows in the room change. The shadows move across his face and he stands by the picture for a long time. The viewer must be wondering why he has been standing by this picture for so long. The side of his face nearest to the picture is covered in shadow and the side of his face away from the picture is light. This makes it look as if he has a split personality, white being a colour representing good, and black/shadow representing bad it is showing there is something bad near that certain side of his face. When he looks through the hole, Marion is wearing a black bra; again there is this feeling of evil.
When Marion is in the shower people are expecting something to happen but don’t know what. There are lots of close ups of the showerhead. I think this is so they don’t have to show too much flesh. All the angles in the shower scene are shot as if Norman has another peephole and is looking through it. When you see ‘’Mother’’ open the door you want to tell Marion that someone is coming but you cant. It is ironic that people immediately think it is Norman coming in. Then they see the hair and assume it’s the Mother when in fact it’s sort of both. The suspense is built up by the way the Mother creeps in and up to the shower curtain very slowly. When the curtain is pulled back the famous music by Herrmann comes in again to shock the audiences even more. The music and the scream completely shock everyone. Each shriek of the violins is like a cut into Marion. I think that because Normans face is completely in shadow that this means that evil has taken over him completely. Reverse shot is used in this scene a lot. Each cut of the knife is like a cut of the film and each time it cuts to Norman’s face it has zoomed in a little bit further. It was good the film was in black and white because the effect of blood was actually chocolate sauce. The sound of the knife cutting into Marion was so real that some people in the 60’s actually believed that they had killed a girl for the film. The sound was achieved by stabbing a knife into a watermelon. The film was almost not released due to the fact that the board of classification were sure that they saw a knife go into the flesh and that they saw a breast. Hitchcock cleverly used the editing to display images into the viewers minds, to see something that wasn’t there. This technique was also used in Tobe Hooper’s ‘’Texas Chainsaw Massacre’’ made in 1974. This and many other films all pay tribute to the groundbreaking film ‘’PSYCHO’’.
When Marion has just stopped being stabbed, you see the figure of Mother run out of the room instantly. As she comes closer and closer to dieing the music slows down more and more, like her gasps for breath. When she holds her hand out if looks like she is trying to get help from the viewer. After she lay dead over the bathtub, there is another close up of the showerhead. The center of the showerhead looks like an eye and it looks like it is watching Marion die. When the shot merges from the plughole to Marion’s eye you can see a drop of water under her eye, which looks like a tear. The scary thing about this is that she is staring straight at the camera, making it look like she is staring at the viewer.
When the audience hear Norman shouting at his Mother about blood it confirms to them that Mother is the murderer. The house is completely covered in shadow. The silhouette of the house in front of the misty sky gives off an evil image. Even though the house is covered in shadow the cabins are not. This could mean the house is represented with evil. Again it is duality. Norman’s reaction is reason enough to believe he didn’t do the murder; the film is very clever in deceiving you. When he turns to face away from the dead body a picture of a bird falls on the floor, as if it has just died. Norman seems to know exactly what to do, as if he has done it before. When he is going back into cabin 1 with a mop his shadow is cast on the wall showing his split personality. As he is standing in the door way to the bathroom you can see the money again as if saying ‘’all because of this?’’ When Norman is going to put everything in the car there is a little bit of suspense when another car drives past and you don’t know if it’s stopping. There is a startling similarity in the fact that Norman has killed a person called ‘Marion Crane’ and his hobby involves him killing birds, a crane is a type of bird. The way Norman chews on candy and the way he acts make you feel the same. When the car stops sinking you start to think like Norman, you want the car to sink. This is a bit of dark comedy; the film is teasing the viewer. When the car finally sinks there is an evil smirk from Norman, it makes you smile as well.
In the next scene a women is buying some insecticide and she says ‘’whether insect or man I think it should always be painless’’. This is a bit ironic considering Marion has jut died and she went through an extreme amount of pain in the process.
Lila Crane (Vera Miles) now enters the film. The music builds up the suspense as Detective Arbogast (Martin Balsam) is searching around hotels; the music is low when he arrives at the Bates Motel.
When Arbogast and Norman are talking to each other, Norman mentions that it is ‘’linen day’’ he also says ‘’I hate that damp smell’’, this is linked with when he mentioned to Marion about life being ‘’dark and damp like a grave’. Arbogast shows Norman a picture of Marion, he says to Norman ‘’would u mind looking at the picture before you commit yourself’’ the words ‘’commit yourself’’ come as a shock to Norman. People often refer committing themselves to insane asylums, Norman has been in one and he hates them, this is a clever piece of script. Arbogast is slightly interrogating Norman. Norman is getting very nervous and stutters quite violently. The way Norman struggles to speak make the audience feel sorry for him; he acts as if he is a child. Half of Arbogasts face is covered in shadow; maybe he has a bad side to him too?
When Norman is finishing his linen duties he steps out of the office and you can see the house towering over him. He walks for a while then he suddenly stops, when his face comes out of the shadow it is as if he is staring at you because you are watching him. When Arbogast enters the house the music is low, you don’t expect he's going to die. As he walks upstairs the camera zoomed in, but tracks backwards. This is known as the ‘’vertigo effect’’ because it was made famous in the 1958 classic ‘’vertigo’’ by Alfred Hitchcock. There are similarities between these two films in that in both of them a man tries to bring back the image of a women, through hair and clothing.
As the door opens you realize Arbogast is not alone. The suspense is extremely high; the audiences hope that they are not about to witness another murder. When Mother steps out the murderous music returns. Two shadows are used very well to the right of the screen where you can see the silhouette of Arbogast getting stabbed. This birds eye view of the murder allows a weird effect and at the same time, not allowing the audience to see the face of Mother/Norman. People think this is a bad angle of for a murder scene to be shot, but by watching the shadow is more horrific than it ever could be. Following Arbogast down the stairs from the angle that is used is very unusual but Hitchcock wanted it to be different. He wanted it to look weird to people. The shot of the knife plunging down has been used in so many movies after psycho.
When Sam leaves the store to go and find Arbogast, the camera zooms in on Lila and the wind blows her hair, you also hear the sound of the wind. This brings an eerie feeling to her and the viewer.
When you see Norman standing by the swamp you realise he's got rid of the evidence. This is annoying to the audiences because they now want him to get caught but they know now there is no proof any murder. I think the next shot is one of the most brilliant shots I've ever seen, all the elements combined to bring an excellent final piece. When Sam shouts for Arbogast the final time it echoes. Norman turns round very smoothly and calmly as the camera moves in on him, this combined with the music being low is why I like it so much. The look on Norman spaces as if saying ‘’ get out or I'll have to kill you too’’ a true look of evil comes across his face.
When the sheriff says the first time that Norman's mother is dead and buried, he says it in a deep, loud whisper. His voice makes its sound even more shocking. Surprisingly there is no music. Another bit of dark comedy is in this scene, when the sheriff's wife says that she ‘’found them dead together’’, then she whispers ‘a ’in bed!’’ This is very amusing even though she's talking about death. When the sheriff questions if they saw Mrs. Bates, he says.’’ Then who’s that women buried at long green cemetery’’ he looks directly at the camera and looks like he is asking the audience, but the audience are already asking that question to themselves.
When Norman goes into the house to get his mother the music raises then goes low, then raises slightly again, it continues to do this until it is very quiet. The audience are confused by the fact that this woman who is supposed to be dead, is talking? The camera moves to the same angle as when Arbogast was killed, this reminds the audience of the scene.
Outside the church sheriff's wife brings a sense of comedy to this otherwise horrific film.
When Lila is walking up to the house it keeps using reverse shot. It zooms in a little further towards the house, then tracks backwards and follows her after steps. The music’s tone is getting higher and higher as she gets closer to the house. When she stops just before the house, you think she has seen something, but it is just her contemplating what she's about to do.
When Sam is keeping Norman at bay in the office he says that being alone would drive him crazy. Norman's subconscious knows he is crazy but doesn't want to believe it. It was being alone which drove him crazy in the first place. He always tries to direct the things to do with becoming crazy/insane away from him. For example, he says ‘’that would be a rather extreme reaction’’. Sam is only saying it as an expression but why does Norman see the other side of it?
The film has become very quiet now, the viewer may remember last time it became quiet someone was murdered. The music starts when Lila enters Mrs. Bates room. When she sees a sculpture of two hands, it takes a while to realise it isn't real, and it does so for the audience as well. When she sees her own reflection she gasp’s, the gasp is loud enough to scare the people watching the film. I think it would have been much more effective if the music raised to a high pitch suddenly. I believe Hitchcock didn't do this because they music is preparing us for a much bigger shock. When Lila sees the indentation on the bed you realise that whoever made that has been laying there for a long time. The conversation between Sam and Norman becomes very heated. The music has gotten a little louder. Everyone knows something is going to happen, they just don't know what. When Norman realises that Lila is in the house the music increases in speed and volume. As he runs up the steps to the house the music gets louder and louder.
When Lila goes into the fruit cellar the music is continuing to be strong. The light on her face is coming from one direction. It's as if whatever she was looking for is coming from that direction. The music gets higher and higher when she is behind Mrs. Bates. She moves in slowly towards Mrs. Bates. The tension and suspense is the greatest it has ever been in the film. The same high pitch tone is heard, as the body in the chair turns round to reveal itself. Once it has that sudden jolt and stops, the violins come in and Lila screams. Then you hear the sound of the steps and see Norman. All the suspense has built up so much that the outcome is so shocking that people watching it in the cinema in the 60’s screamed as well. The light that Lila hit is still swinging and has given life to the shadows. You hear the voice of mother coming from Norman. When Sam grabs Norman you realise that the hair is a wig. Seeing a man dressed as a woman shocked many people. With the light swaying its looks as if the Skull of the dead mother is moving. The crescendo of the music makes it sounds as if the mother is laughing.
The voice of Norman's mother is very scary. When the music raises, Norman looks at the camera and gives an evil grin. The technique used by Hitchcock just before the film ends is very slight but completely recognisable. When the shot fades away from Norman's face you can see the teeth from the skull of the dead mother overlapping onto Norman's. The film ends with the stripe fade, as if it is telling us that Norman is still insane.
My conclusion to the question, ‘’Hitchcock is called the master of suspense’’ to what extent do you agree? Is yes. I totally agree with this because Hitchcock knew exactly what would make a good film. He knew where the camera should be without even looking through the lens. All of Hitchcock's films involve complicated or simple camera shots, which make the viewer, feel as if they are experiencing what the actors/actresses are. Films like ‘Psycho’, ‘Shadow of a Doubt’, ‘Rear Window’, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘The man who knew too much’, all involved movements of the camera, which took over the viewer's minds. Hitchcock knew exactly when the music should coincide with the film and what kind of settings the film should have for maximum effect. Hitchcock was a master of special effects and used shadow to create connotation of the images he filmed. Hitchcock was a pioneer in his directing capabilities. Hitchcock also had his cameos in his films that would make viewers want to see them more, to see if they could spot him. He also has his dark humour that he was very good at using in films. Also, the advertising for this film ‘Psycho’ was what made everyone so curious about it, and the secrecy that surrounded the whole mystery of the rules that involved going to watch it. ‘’No-one shall be admitted into the movie after it has started screening’’ ‘’you must see it from the beginning!’’
Hitchcock knew how long a film should last, and I quote. ‘’ The length of a movie
should directly relate to the endurance of the human bladder’’ Hitchcock always
had humorous responses to everything. His brilliance was sometimes too bright:
He was hated as well as loved, over simplified as well as over analyzed. He was eccentric, demanding, inventive, impassioned and he had a great sense of British humour. I finish off my essay with a quote from Hitchcock,‘’ Always make the audience suffer as much as possible’’
