In the history of horror movies Hitchcock's film Psycho broke new ground. Explain why this statement is true.

The two basic narrative structures in Hitchcock's films both involve investigations. In the first, the film focuses on the character as he carries out an investigation, in the second, the character comes under investigation. ''Psycho'' features the second type of structure. This is because it begins with a crime, Marion stealing the money, which is then investigated by Arbogast, Lila and Sam. Although, the later investigation is not about the stolen money but about the murders committed by Norman.

In Hitchcock's films there are three worlds: the first is the world of the mundane; the second is the world of subjective desire and the third is the intellectual world. The film ''Psycho'' starts with the mundane. It opens with a shot of Phoenix, Arizona and with some everyday information: the name of the city, the date and the time. We learn about the ordinary lives of Sam and Marion, and about Marion's normal job.

Then the film enters the world of subjective desire as Marion steals 40,000 dollars to pay for her and Sam to get married. Then after Marion is killed the film goes into the intellectual world as the characters try to find out what has happened to her. This is also linked to the second narrative structure Hitchcock uses.

A theme Hitchcock uses often in his films is guilt. The film ''I confess'' is a prime example of this. In ''Psycho'' Marion realises her guilt in stealing the money. Also another theme used in Hitchcock's films is that of the perfect murder, for example ''Strangers on a train'' (1951).

Hitchcock's films could also be said to reveal the terrors of everyday life. In ''Psycho'' the world is portrayed as an immoral and random place. This world is everyday America.

''Psycho'' when it was released in 1960 completely re-defined the horror genre. Up until ''Psycho'' all of the horror films were very much fantasy based, with the killer being a Vampire or a mutated Insect that people new did not exist. But with ''Psycho'' the killer was just your average looking sweet and innocent boy-next-door. Because of this the audience is denied the closure and relief because the killer does not die and also the audience realise that anyone could be a psychopathic killer, even in their ordinary, everyday lives.

The film is based on the true story of Ed Gein a farmer from Wisconsin who killed and mutilated a number of young women and his mother. The setting of the film provides a visual equivalent for a psychological state. The American gothic house, with its cellars and mysterious doors is quite an imposing, intimidating and even frightening looking place. The image of this dark and sinister house is used well to contrast the events that unfold in the film, because the events unfold in an everyday, normal context.

The second way that the film re-defined the genre is that with ''Psycho'' the viewer is implicated into an amoral world. First of all when Marion runs off with the 40,000 dollars. Instead of the audience disliking her because she has committed a crime, Hitchcock has manipulated the audience's feelings by the circumstances of the crime. She is stealing the money off a tax dodging rich man and she is stealing it to get married. It is because of this, the audience want her to get away with it. Therefore Hitchcock has removed all sense of right and wrong.

Also, the film is different to all other horror movies before it because the audience start off identifying with the main character Marion, they learn about her job and her boyfriend and her life in general, the audience get to know Marion but when she is unexpectedly murdered the audience's identification is shifted to Norman. The audience is tricked into thinking that they will be following Marion through the whole film, but they are wrong. This is known in the film world as a ''Mcguffin''.

After ''Psycho'' was released it accidentally created a completely new sub-genre and spawned a whole new generation of horror movies. This sub-genre is the Slasher movie. There have been many famous slasher movies since ''Psycho'' such as ''Silence of the Lambs'', ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', ''Nightmare on Elm street'' and ''Scream''.

''Psycho'' challenged the limits imposed by the censor at the time, It may not seem like it if you compare it too modern horror movies but at the time it was classed as extremely gory and adult. It was loathed by many people and critics when it was released. Not only is there the shower scene where a naked woman is stabbed to death but also in the opening minutes of the film there is a scene with Marion in a bra and Sam without a top on after they have just made love. This was seen as shocking because in the 60's sex outside of marriage was a taboo and barely ever talked about let alone put into films.

One of the most famous scenes ever in the history of horror films is the shower scene in ''Psycho'' and even today, 42 years after it was first shown it still retains the power to shock. The scene starts after Marion has had supper with Norman, and as a result of the conversation she has with him, she has a change of heart and decides to return the money. She goes back to her room and undresses oblivious to the fact that Norman is spying on her through a hole in the wall. Soon Norman walks away furiously as though he is ignoring his mothers order not to bring women to the house. Marion then enters the bathroom to take a shower.

At this time, the camera and the audience are taken inside the shower, and then the approach of a dark, shadowy figure can be seen through the semi-transparent shower curtain. As the curtain is torn aside, a brief glimpse of the silhouette of Normans ''mother'' is gained. A butcher's knife is used to stab at Marion. Her corpse then falls across the bath. If the scene was presented as a continuous piece of realistic action it would have been classed as obscene and would have not got past the censor. Instead, Hitchcock gives a stylised depiction. Instead of being a continuous piece of action it is made up of fragments, with the murder filmed as a montage of close ups in rapid succession. (A total of 90 shots for the whole murder scene) From the impression Hitchcock gives the audience uses there own imagination to build up a mental image of the murder. Instead of her screams being heard, loud high pitched violin music is used to take their place. .Also because the film is in black and white it is not as gory as it would be if it was in colour. The blood that swirls down the plughole at the end of the scene is chocolate sauce and the stabbing sound effects were made by violating a Turkish melon. The shower scene took seven days to shoot, which is quite astonishing when the whole film only took six weeks to shoot, so Hitchcock new how important the shower scene was going to be so they spent a lot of time on it to get it exactly right. And the shot of Marion's dead body with those dilated eyes were simply contact lenses. The blood you see pouring down the plughole symbolises Marion's life seeping away.

After reading my essay, you can clearly see how Alfred Hitchcock's ''Psycho'' broke new ground in horror movies when it was released in 1960. It had done so many things that no horror movie had done before. When it was first shown it was loathed by many cinema goers and even some critics, but now is regarded as a classic and is among the top ten films ever made according to many surveys. It was such a groundbreaking film it created its own sub-genre of the 'slasher' movie, no previous film had dealt with violence so directly. ''Psycho'' challenged accepted film going conventions buy making the audience lose identification with the main character early on in the film and at the end of the film it offers no closure, so the audience are still scared even after they have left the cinema! The film also broke a variety of different cultural taboos like the scene where Marion has just made love to Sam, this was sex outside of marriage this was not even talked about let alone put into a mainstream film. She was stabbed to death naked in the shower. None of this had ever been done before, even the killer was completely extraordinary, on the surface he appeared to be the average boy-next-door but really he was a cross dressing psychopath who thought he was he mother. It may seem tame now compared to modern day horror movie killers, but at the time it was a revelation. Also it was so different from classical narrative tradition, it was the forerunner of modern filmmaking style that is films as emotional events. So, now I hope you understand why Alfred Hitchcock's ''Psycho'' broke new ground. But not only did it break new ground, it changed the film world Forever.

- Thomas Down