In what ways does Hitchcock manipulate the audiences point of view in the shower scene in psycho?

Then we have a shot of Norman deciding that he has had enough and what he is doing is morally wrong. He leaves the parlour and heads up to the main house. The camera does not move with Norman. It stays stationary as Norman moves up to the house. As the distance between the camera and Norman increases the more neutral the shot becomes making the audience seem like a bystander and not part of the plot. The camera keeps a distance from Norman even when Norman reaches the house. As he moves to sit at the dining room table, the camera is positioned at the front door so there is the space of the corridor between the audience and Norman. This manipulates the audience making us feel sorry for him and also the fact his facial expression makes him seem very lonely and distant. In almost al of the scenes we see with Norman his face is in the shadows and this scene is no exception all the while we see normal he is surrounded by a dark gloom that makes him seem almost inhuman.

We then cut back to Marion turning on the shower in the motel room. The next shot is of the showerhead with a jet of water spraying into the bath. Marion takes off her robe and gets into the shower. We only see Marion in the shower from the collarbone upwards ad it would be pushing TV too far if they were to show anymore. It leaves the audience with a feeling of curiosity. The slight glimpse of skin lets the audience's imagination put the rest of the picture together. The camera at this point is pointing downwards on Marion. This makes the audience feel more dominant towards the actress. It also connotes Marion to be vulnerable and submissive. When we see her start to wash herself it makes the audience feel relaxed and lulls them into a false sense of security. The fact that she is in the shower, naked, also gives the impression of no escape, as she can't go anywhere. Then there is a shot so that we can see Marion from the side and also the faint outline of the bathroom door, through the shower curtain.

This is the turning point in the film as when the door is seen to open and a person walk inside, the audiences feelings go from relaxed to full of fear. The mysterious person walks into the room we see by the lighting that this is a bad situation as the bright light of the room surrounds Marion and the visitor is surrounded by darkness. Then there is then a shot of the visitor pulling back the shower curtain. The backlighting erases the intruders face so the element of surprise is still kept. Then we flash to the intruder's point of view as Marion tried to cover herself (still showing no more than the collarbone up) followed by a shot of the intruders hand brandishing a knife. Then there is a lot of rapid editing. Swapping from the knife coming down in swift movements, The intruders point of view shot showing Marion looking defenceless and vulnerable to the blood in the bath. The rapid editing manipulates the viewers opinion to mimic the heart rate increasing and also adds an element of gothic fiction. The idea of the what scares is not what we see its what we don't see. The fact we never seen the intruders face. We never actually see the knife cutting Marion it is just assumed that it is and the suspense of whether Marion will make it or not is also on our minds.

We then see the intruder's black shadow backing through the door not turning round to leave... backing through the door. This makes the intruder seem more menacing a normal person would have turned around to leave but the intruder almost glides out of the room as stealthily as he enters. It then turns to Marion who is expressionless as she slides down the wall into the bottom of the bath. We then see her hand grabbing the shower curtain. At this point when we see a shot of Marion's face she is still surrounded by light and has that feeling of purity and divinity about her. As she grabs the curtain we get a shot of the curtain coming away from its rails and as this happens we hear Marion fall out of the bath. We don't actually get a shot of her falling it is just presumed by the audience that she falls. We then see the draped over the bath followed by a shot of Marion's feet in the bath as the blood swirls down the drain into the plug's vortex. The idea of the blood swirling down the drain could be interpreted as Marion's life being washed away with the blood. When we see this we subconsciously know that Marion is dead. WE then get a final shot of the camera zooming in on Marion's eye. The light is still surrounding her. This is when we know that Marion is dead and this is also when the fear begins to fade. The fading of the shot mimics the fading of the audiences fear. There is a strange sense of relief, which is also a common trait of gothic fiction. The calm after the storm.

Holly Wigley SF17