Matthew Branston
How does Hitchcock create suspense and tension in the film psycho?
Psycho was a low budget movie. It was made in 1962 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was to be different it was the first of its kind. It misleads people by portraying a sexy image when really it was to be a horror based on the notorious serial killer Ed Gein.
To promote his new film Hitchcock used various techniques, for example the denotations of the poster was a red herring and mislead people in to believing the film had a sexy genre. To get the film better publicity Hitchcock decided to make rules up for the film. These were the following once the film had started nobody else was allowed in. Moreover the audience were made to sit in absolute darkness after the film had ended. Hitchcock believed by doing this he would scare people more this would create more tension therefore giving the film a better effect.
In the film Hitchcock uses various techniques of lighting. Lighting defies horror convention in ways. Firstly they reflect the lights off the bright tiles; this was to show a sense of innocence. It made people believe nothing was going to happen. Hitchcock then shown the lighting so it was coming from behind the shower this created suspense, an additional reason was to cause dramatic irony this meant that the audience would see the killer, but the victim would be oblivious. Tension was caused because we were waiting for the moment to happen. The killer was also backlit so we wouldn’t see his/her face. In the parlour scene Hitchcock uses the lighting to make the birds shadow above Marrion and Norman. In effect this portrays the birds preying on their target; it makes the audience almost believe the birds will jump off the perches and attack. Hitchcock’s most remembered scene would be the discovery of Mrs Bates’ body. When we see Lila hit the light bulb we get the idea that the body of Mrs Bates is grinning at us.
