The house is always shot in cloud or gloom like a haunted house. The use of lights in the house adds atmosphere because from the outside it gives the impression of waiting and watchful eyes. Bates house is always shot from a low angle, this makes the steps up to the house seem never-ending. This maintains tension as we don't know when they will end or what’s at the top.
The parlour of the motel is just as eerie as the house. Because the film was shot in black and white, the shadows are more pronounced and menacing. There are a lot of stuffed birds of prey in attacking positions as if ready to swoop down and snatch Marian. This is almost like they are preempting the ghastly future events. Something which is noticeable is the single stuffed black Raven. This adds to the buildup, as Ravens are symbolically unlucky.
Bates watches Marian like a hawk saying she eats like a bird. This shows he is very observant in a strange way and this is a further atmosphere creator. Marian is lit by a soft light and has soft objects placed around her. Gentle background music is played and all this contributes to calm but slightly sinister setup. Another strange feature of the parlor and house is that pictures of biblical scenes of women being accosted are placed around the rooms. This is adds to the tension as we are left wondering why this man has unpleasant pictures in his house. Is this revealing something of his underlying personality?
The Shower sequence is the ultimate nightmare murder. It builds atmosphere, tension and shock in such a way that the end of the sequence leaves you clammy and cold. In a shower you are vulnerable, psychologically and physically stripped bare with no means to defend yourself. The white surface is slippery, nowhere to grip onto and no way of preventing a nasty accident. I think audiences identify with this as they have probably taken showers them selves and felt vulnerable in their nakedness. The most atmospheric part of this is that we know something must be about to happen because Hitchcock would not have filmed a woman taking a shower for no reason because of censorship reasons. Just before Marion is murdered, a point of view shot is taken of the showerhead. We have become Marion moments before her murder.
From being centre shot, Marion moves to the side allowing an ominous space to appear. Then a shadow appears behind the shower curtain. Here the music suddenly picks up as the figure wrenches back the curtain. As the figure stabs Marion, the strings become a screeching, stabbing, ear-grinding crescendo. So we don’t actually see whom the murderer is, all we see is a silhouette. This is shocking because if we are not meant to see the murderer, then there must be more murders to follow before we find out. This sequence is very psychologically unnerving because we think we see more than we actually do. In actual fact the knife does not pierce Marion’s skin but our imaginations are in overdrive and we see all sorts of horrible things. When the murderer leaves, the music slows down. At this point, the audience would have been terrified. A close-up of Marion’s eye spirals out into a dissolved shot of the plug in the bath where blood is sweeping down. The fact that the main character is dead within thirty minutes of the start of the film, leaves a vacant gap in the story and this is builds the tension incredibly.
At the beginning of the Arboghast murder sequence, ominous music is played, predicting future bad. This is a tension builder as the music affects our subconscious telling us something bad will happen. When Arboghast enters the house, the silence indicates that nobody is home. But when the door makes a clicking sound when it closes behind him, disturbing the dead silence we still react nervously due to the fact that we just know something is about to happen. The house is dimly lit, not enough light to welcome him. Arbogast looks around hesitantly almost nervously, this makes us feel for him consequently adding tension. Hitchcock has then chosen subjective shots, so we can be put in Arbogast’s position and emphasize with him.
The foreboding music starts to imply that something is about to happen. He looks away and we see a cupid holding a bow. The shadow creates an un-known figure holding a knife. This is a perfect part of the mise-en-scene along with the gothic interior. We have already witnessed the murder of Marian so now the tension is unbearable and we are just hanging onto our seats with anticipation waiting for the next deadly event to occur. Arbogast looks up towards the stairs and he then slowly progresses upstairs where ahead of him is a crack in the door, leaving a thin band of light beaming through the door. The door quickly widens, as we hear the same strains of music we heard during the shower scene, implying danger.
We cut to seeing an overhead shot of the aggressor launching their attack, stabbing Arbogast. We then see shots of Arbogast's shocked face now bleeding from, the aggressor stabbing him in his face, Arbogast is caught off balance and he stumbles back down the stairs in a almost comic, backwards fall.
We are drawn down with him as he waves his arms frantically, again trying to reach the audience like Marion had in the shower. The attacker follows him as we see Arbogast’s startled and bleeding face. The assailant now kneels beside his sprawled body and finishes the job, plunging the knife repeatedly into the detective’s torso as he lets out one last howling cry.
This is another new idea to the audience. Hitchcock has planned this attack to make the audience believe that Norman’s mother is the killer.
Hitchcock, during the last ten minutes builds up the atmosphere, shock, and tension by using lighting, props, clothing, facial expressions, music, camera angles and the mise-en-scene.
When we start the sequence with Lila following the steps of Arboghast up to the house, this creates tension as we remember what happened to him. Hitchcock cuts from point of view shots to backtracking shots, whist Lila climbs the hill to the house. The backtracking enable us to see behind her as if to make sure nobody is following her. As Lila gets closer, the music becomes more ominous and higher. The camera moves closer to Lila and the house whilst crosscutting to Sam and Norman, where Norman is becoming increasingly agitated. This creates a feeling of uncertainty over whom is the real culprit. Anthony Perkins performs brilliantly as Norman Bates, creating just the right amount of tension from the little movements he does, for instance like the slight flick of his fingers. At this point Lila enters the house. Here the door closes with exactly the same click as when Arboghast entered and we see the same statue of cupid pointing arrow at Lila’s back. Lila progresses up the stairs in the same fashion as Arboghast did. When she reaches the top of the stairs, we see the same door that the attacker of Arboghast came from. She enters the room and it appears to be a woman’s room. She notices black death moulds of a woman’s hands on the dressing table. Could this be Mrs Bates’ death mould? We are further confused when we see dresses hanging in the closet and the imprint of a body on the bed, as we are now unsure as to Mrs Bates existence. Suddenly we get a shock as the Lila jumps at the sight of her reflection in the mirrors. Then there is a crosscut to Sam and Norman back at the Motel. We see Sam’s reflection in the mirror, suggesting he also has darker side. Tension mounts as Lila enters Norman’s bedroom where there are toys and children’s belongings scattered around. There is a shot of a record player with the “Eroica” Symphony. Hitchcock deliberately chose this as part of Mise-en-scene because at first glance it looks like “Erotica” which shocks the audience into thinking perhaps Norman was attracted to Marian. Lila picks up a book with no title; she reads it and raises her eyebrows slightly shocked. At this point the string music speeds up, predicting danger. We have no time to wonder why Lila was surprised by the book.
Lila heads for the cellar staircase and pauses. This creates anxiety as we are trapped between her two decisions. Does she venture down to the ominous staircase or does she walk out of the door never to find out what is down there? We crosscut again to Norman who realizes where Lila is. He rushes up to the house and we cut to Lila gazing at the back of “Mother’s” head. Mrs Bates slowly turns around. The tension mount as we think, “what is Mother like?” Suddenly Lila screams and raises her arm in the air and knocks the lightbulb. The sockets of the dead mother light up and the music speeds up to the “stabbing” strings music which pierces the audiences hearts. If this shock wasn’t enough, Norman rushes in dressed as his mother clutching a knife in his raised hand. The camera focuses in on the knife then wig then mother, as her death grimace appears to laugh at them.
At the courthouse, the doctor unravels the tale like a whodunit. He creates suspense by using his voice. He asks rhetorical questions and then pauses, making you ask questions yourself about the series of events that led to the murders. He walks slowly around the room, using his body language to create tension. He explains that Norman is psychotic, when his mother died he kept her alive by becoming her and she slowly took over his mind. We cut to the cell were Norman sits to the left of the centre of the shot, signifying that there might be an invisible entity sitting besides him. Perhaps it is his mother? His eyes flicker and we hear his thoughts, now his mother’s, being directed to the audience. The final shock comes as Norman raises his head to look straight at the audience. His penetrating glare is menacing and extremely unnerving but it gets worse as a skulls teeth (His mother’s teeth) are superimposed over his own maniac grin. The shot cuts to a car being dragged out of the swamp where he dumped the bodies. The shot dissolves into the credits with the same stabbing music as at the beginning.
Psycho was a thrilling film from start to finish. I wouldn’t have personally chosen it, as thriller/horrors aren’t my preferred genre. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was kept on edge all the way through. I am scared very easily so Hitchcock’s techniques worked well on me. The music was electrifying and my favourite sequence was the shower sequence because it scared me to bits. The way Marian died was intuitive and original. Studying Pyscho has made me look at film differently because now I always analyse films as I watch them. Unfortunately it hasn’t changed my favourite genre. My favourite genre is fantasy/adventure and my favourite film is Pirates of the Caribbean because it’s witty, thrilling and a brilliant adventure. It also has one of my favourite actors, Johnny Depp who is an excellent character actor who isn’t given enough chance to show his talent.