When the policeman with his unusual sunglasses knocks on Marion’s car’s window. Marion’s reaction to the police officer is calm but tension slowly builds up as the officer asks more questions. The policeman let’s her go but he still follows her, which is strange and makes the viewers tense. Then there are quick view shots of Marion looking through the rear view mirror when the policeman approaches her in her car. There are point of view shots looking through Marion's eyes when the policeman is talking to her. The audience are put in Marion's position when the policeman is interrogating her. This manipulates the audience because it makes them feel nervous. There were lots of different camera angles and pictures of the same thing, which makes the viewer very insecure and uncomfortable as it creates anxiety.
When Marian arrives at the small, isolated motel, she had no idea to what was around the next corner. The rain is beating down so hard. It would have been impossible to hear anything at all. Marion could see is the gothic image of the house on the hill with a shadow of someone in the window. This setting creates a terrifying atmosphere because it’s so dark and quiet you don’t know what to expect or what’s going to happen next. The house behind the motel is big, old and looked frightening. It is appropriate to the genre as it creates an element of tension. It’s not somewhere you would want to go. This makes the viewer feel very insecure, unsure of what’s going to happen. It creates suspense.
In the opening dialogue between Norman and Marian, Norman shows her to her room. She is the only guest staying at Bates Motel so he puts her in room number 1 the closest room to him. His hesitation on deciding which cabin to put Marion in makes the viewer wonder why he hesitates this creates nervousness.
When Norman Bates and Marian enter the parlour the camera draws our attention to two stuffed birds. The dead birds symbolise death, murder, preying on other creatures. When Marian talks about the birds she says its good for a man to have a hobby but Norman Bates says it’s more than just a hobby. This indicates that he is a lonely person. He only has his mother and she controls his life.
Norman Bates describes how isolated the motel is by saying that no one ever comes to the motel anymore. The fact that there are 12 cabins and 12 vacancies is very unusual. It makes the viewer feel timid.
Norman closely watches Marion eat this makes the viewer nerves, as his interest in her is not typical. Norman Bates often brings up or makes references to death in his conversations. For example, when he compliments Marion by saying ‘you eat like a bird.’ This is strange and suspicious as there are dead birds of prey on the wall. This creates tension and makes the viewer insecure and wondering what is going to happen next. Norman Bates always replies to ‘we’ in his statements. This implies there is someone else. This makes the viewer even more insecure. Within the dialogue there are hints about what is going to happen later. It starts to reveal a more sinister and threatening side to Norman Bates. When Norman talks of his mother the angle of the camera focuses the audience on one of the birds of prey connecting Norman with murder and death. His conversation clearly shows that there is conflict with his mother. His feeling of hate for her illness implies hidden secrets.
The shower scene is where the real tension starts. It’s the peak of the action in the first half of the film, but there’s a lull before conflict. As tension slowly builds up to the murder. The shower scene has over ninety shots in it. These subliminal shots add a lot of action and speed to the scene. The fast subliminal shots make the audiences heart rate increase, making them more irritable. This is a subconscious manipulation that Hitchcock used. This explicit scene was the most important scene for Hitchcock, where he spent the most time on. The shower scene took seven working days to shot and involved over 78 cameras.
This shower scene can be broken down into many different frames to help with the interpretation of this part of the film. When Marian enters the shower the camera focuses on her washing, she is very vulnerable because she is naked and has no means of escape. The camera spends a long time focusing on her washing this indicates to the audience that something is going to happen, slowly building up tension. Hitchcock uses dramatic irony, the audience see a figure behind the shower curtain before Marian does therefore we are alerted to the danger. Someone opens the curtain and Marian turns around this is when the music starts; it’s high pitched and creates lots of tension. Whilst Marion is being murdered, we see Marion’s point of view shot. Looking at the silhouette of the killer whilst he is stabbing her. This manipulates the audience a great deal because the audience feel shocked and hurt because Marion is being killed. The audience are put in Marion's perspective and they see themselves getting stabbed. This is a very sinister scene. The camera flashes from the killer to her, Norman Bates stabbing her and the fear in her eyes. Norman Bates runs away and she reaches for the shower curtain, she is reaching out for someone to help her. The camera focuses on her blood running down the drain, this symbolises her life being wasted away. We see her eye still and lifeless this connects to when Norman Bates was watching her through the peephole. A sinister shot that manipulates the audience is just after Marion is killed. Whilst she is lying dead in the bathtub, the camera slowly goes to a close-up of her open eye. This leaves the audience in suspense because the audience have identified with her a lot, and feel to have become part of her. When the audience see her bleeding head, they are all in shock.
Music was used in the film to reflect the viewers feelings and where needed, to heighten them. This was the first time this technique had been used. The main theme of music used in the film is very menacing, high pitched and has high tempo. This music adds lots of tension and suspense in the audience. In some parts of the film the music will increase its tempo, volume or will change. In some parts of the set, sinister music is played. This adds anxiety and also keeps the audience in suspense because the music builds up to what will happen in the film.
When Marion first arrives at the motel there is no noise but of the rain. This gives the effect of being realistic and creates a scene of deadly silence. This silence makes the natural hesitation in speech more eerie and therefore creates tension.
Hitchcock slows down the music tempo of the music purposefully, so that the audience will feel more shocked at the sudden death of Marion. High-pitched and rhythmitic music is used whilst the audience view Marion’s death. The actual stabbing of Marion is the sound of a watermelon being stabbed each time.
Throughout the film the camera and different camera angles were used to manipulate the viewer in daunting them and being more effective and creating tension and suspense.
In the film there are a range of different camera shots used. Long shots of house behind the motel show that it is gothic and bigger than everything around it. The medium shots of Norman Bates connects the viewer association with the gothic image of the motel to Norman Bates, making him just as intimidating and forbidding as the dark and unusual building of the motel.
The camera regularly does close up shots of the money even though the main story is not about this. This distracts the viewers from the main story and misleads the viewer. The money adds tension to the main story; it keeps the viewer in suspense.
Psycho in its day was a terrifying and shocking film. Even today the film makes the viewer tense with anticipation of what’s to come. Many different and subtle innovative techniques were adapted to manipulate its audience. These techniques were effective as they created tension and suspense throughout the film.