When Marion arrives at the motel, it tells the viewer that it’s unusual because it was dark and it was raining heavily. It was very hard to see because of the rain and darkness. There was no noise as well, which makes the viewer in more tense and horror. They showed the image of a gothic house on a hill from position aboved, which makes it, looks haunted, frightening, chilling and forbidding. This makes the viewer tenser and tenser. Then camera cuts to Norman, which first terrifies the viewer because the viewer thinks it’s a ghost but when they show Norman properly, he is a normal person, which calms the viewer down.
It is very unusual and suspicious when Marion is in the office with Norman, and when they talk and communicate with each other because it is
not like a natural behaviour. Norman hesitates on deciding on cabin, which he is going to put Marion in. He puts her in room number one, the closest room to his office, which is just on the other side of the wall. This makes the audience wonder, why? When Marion is eating, Norman watches her eating extremely closely. The camera also focuses on his eyes. This makes the viewer nervous. Norman stares at her a lot, which is unusual and makes it thoughtful for the viewers. Norman uses the word ‘we’ which means there is someone else in the house. No one knows who is it, which makes it tenser for the viewer. Norman talks about his mother like he hates her but he doesn’t really hate her. It is because she is ill and feels sorry for her and him as well.
Norman’s conversations “you eat like a bird” references to death and entrapment and his extend dialogues with Marion makes it very unusual and brings more tension into the film. There are birds on his walls and is an image of death which creates tension. When Norman says, “you eat like a bird”, this means he is comparing Marion with death.
Hitchcock spends a lot of time on the shower scene because it is a key scene which is important and which has the murder of the film. The scene starts when Marion takes her clothes of and opens the door of the bathroom. She goes in and turns the shower on. When Marion walks in the shower, the camera focuses on her washing, she is very vulnerable because she is naked and has no mean to escape. The camera spends a long time on her washing, which makes the viewer wait, and indicates him/her that something is going to happen. The camera position tells the viewer to look at the door, which makes it more terrifying and frightening. The vision of the viewer is blued by the shower curtain, this means the viewer can see the outline of the intruder and nothing more, which makes in more tense and it is terrifying and imitating. When Marion turns around, that is where the music starts, it is high pitched and creates lots of tension. This is a very horror scene because her screams are like birds dying. The music is very loud and sharp when she turns around. The camera angle changes every time when the knife moves and the camera focuses on her blood running down the drain, this symbolizes her life being washed away. At the end of the murder scene, the camera focuses on her eye, which is still and lifeless, which means she is dead. By now, the effects on the viewer are very terrifying, and horrifying. This builds up the most tense in the film. When this scene completely finishes, the viewer calms down a bit because the murder scene is gone and starts focusing on Norman instead of Marion.
In this film, the music builds up lots of tension. The music is fast when she steels the money, which means she is in hurry to run away. The fast music in the shower created lots of tension because it was loud and high. Sometimes,
when there is no music, it becomes very horror as well for example when Marion arrives at the Motel; there was no music except for rain, which builds up more tension. So, music was very effective through out this film and supported the action all the way through. If there was no music, this film would be less horror and less tensed.
Through out this film, the camera with different views bought the viewer in a lot of tension and suspense. The camera supported the dialogues of Norman and Marion. Different views of cameras built up lots of tension. When Norman talks about his mother, the angle of the camera focuses on one of the birds connecting Norman with murder and death. As they talk about the gothic house, the camera works to convey tension by focusing up close on the two characters. When the camera is focused on Norman’s face, his eyes stare intensely and become threatening. This makes Marion feel uncomfortable and nervous around Norman. When the camera focuses on Norman’s eyes, it is just still. In the shower scene, the camera angles were very effective and built up lots of tension, because they show different angles of knife and Marion. When Marion steels the money, the camera just focuses on the money, which makes the viewer, bring in to money and forget about the title ‘psycho’.
The conclusion is that in the whole film, the dialogues, conversations and camera angles made the viewers think and gave them ideas of what might happen next. I think there were lots of techniques used in this film to manipulate the audience for example dialogues, the angles of the cameras, the black and white film, and the background. There were some bits in this film which made the audience relax but the sudden changes in this story was perfect technique to build up tension in its viewers. My favourite part of the film is when Marion changes her car and the policeman is following her because this part was interesting.
