Successful films must always contain some key features and Psycho manages to contain them all. The plot of the story makes it gripping throughout. The plot is packed with twists, turns and excitement with the odd shock and surprise whilst there are always some red herrings in the story to mislead you. Hitchcock makes us assume things such as Normans mother. We are led to believe that she is a real person yet we never actually see her, only her silhouette in the window, until the end of course where there is that horrific image of her decaying body in the wheelchair.
You will undoubtedly notice some interesting characters in the film as well to add a bit of interest to the story. Most noticeably and most memorably is Norman Bates who is a little different to your average person, mostly because he dresses up as his dead mother and brutally murders people, but his personality makes him appear to be anything but a psychopathic killer. As Marion first parks up at the motel and Norman appears from the gothic house on top of the hill, he seems just the type of guy you would want to meet yet ironically he is actually the opposite of this. Since the death of his mother who he actually murdered himself, he has two sides to him; the Norman side which is simply himself who is a generally nice guy and his dreaded mother side; where he is an uncontrollable threat. Whenever something that would have potentially upset his mother is said, the mother side of him takes over and Norman appears to be a completely different character such as when Marion makes the comment about it being possibly easier for him if he sends his mother to a home and he becomes almost possessed by his mother side. Hitchcock signals this by a change in music and a close up of Normans forbidding eyes. Yet when he is out of mother mode he is helpful to Marion and despite being rather shy he likes to talk at every opportunity and talks honestly like about how little visitors he gets at his motel and as an audience we have sympathy for him because he seems to be a bit of a loser as they say. He does however appear quite intelligent with his use of metaphors about life such as his explanation of us all being in our own trap. As for the other main character Marion, she was the 1960’s equivalent to a model, although this opinion has died down a bit, as her appearance is a bit unfashionable to today’s standards.
Comparing to today’s standards, the special effects may not be as visually realistic but what makes it still compete in tension is the realism of the storyline and that this could happen to you. Today, the story lines from films often contain things like aliens invading the planet so us humans get rid of them by shooting them with laser beams, and admittedly the special effects make this look realistic but you never walk away feeling effected by it as things like this simply do not happen. However, Norman Bates was based on a true character and everything that happens in psycho, happens in real life, from murder to affairs. In fact, I remember going to a Hitchcock theatre on holiday and watching the shower scene from Psycho and secretly the reason I didn’t have a shower in the hotel for two weeks was if I’m being honest, because I was scared and not because I wanted a bath. This is why psycho lives long in the memory of those who dare to watch it.
Hitchcock uses incredibly clever directory techniques to absorb the audience into another world. He uses symbolism and irony that the audience unconsciously take in such as the birds of prey in Norman’s office. Norman claims his mother is “as harmless as one of those stuffed birds” and as we discover, she has in fact been preserved by Norman using his stuffing experience and these birds in their time were not the kind of birds you’d keep as pets. The memorable scenes which are some of the most famous in cinema history are just what makes it the difference between a good film and a great film, this is mostly down to the way Hitchcock directs the scene using music which can either create tension or shock such as the high screeching music and the clever camera angles which shock the audience in the shower scene.
Obviously the quality of today’s special effects have changed cinema for the better today but the illusions Hitchcock wanted to make back in 1960, could hardly be made much better even with today’s technology. He was left with the bare bones of special effects and the basics of lighting and camera angles. In the shower scene again for an example, you never see the knife enter the body as the camera angle cuts just before and you are left to picture yourself what happens next with the help of the sound effect of a knife stabbing a melon.
The music is a key part of what creates suspense and a general feeling of the current event. Near the beginning of the film when Marion is suspicious about the following policeman, the music creates the feeling of a chase taking place and the music when Norman changes character to his mother side, the music creates tension.
The most famous scene of the film if not, any film is the shower scene. There is a long period of there being no dialogue in which we see Norman remove a picture off his office wall and peek through a hole at Marion who is getting undressed as she prepares to have a shower. This is the first signal visible to the audience that Norman may be some kind of threat to Marion and you question what he is about to do. He then disappears up to the house on top of the hill. Meanwhile we see a close up of Marion’s face as she turns on the shower. I always wondered myself whether the water would be unbearably cold if you turn it on without any time for it to heat up, but that’s irrelevant. Before now, we are hinted that Marion has changed her mind after speaking to Norman and she is in fact going to go back and give back the money she stole. The camera angle cuts so we can see the water washing down from the above showerhead. Perhaps this is symbolising the water washing away Marion’s sins and showing her starting again. The scene is rather calm until we see a shadow cast on the shower curtain and the camera takes its concentration off Marion and onto this shadow. Whilst the audience questions who or even what it is, the curtain is torn across and we see the dark figure of Norman Bates dressed as his mother with a knife raised above his head. Simultaneously the music creates a fast high pitch screech whilst Marion screams for help. Norman repeatedly slashes Marion and the camera angle quickly flashes between the dark shadowy figure of Norman and the bright image of Marion. She is cornered in a shower with nobody within saving distance of her, which adds to the tension. As Norman stabs her, the camera cuts to another part of her body, partly to let us imagine ourselves what would happen next but also to do with the censorship rules not allowing it and probably the special effects not being able to create such an illusion. The stabbing of the Melon creates a gruesome and I assume a realistic sound. After many slashes, Norman casually walks away whilst Marion grabs onto the shower curtain in a desperate last gasp attempt to save herself but her sheer weight is too much for the hooks to take and she falls back down. The camera then concentrates on all the blood going down the plughole to give a ghastly ending to the attack. The camera then cuts so it is focused right on Marion’s eye which despite her being dead, still looks in shock, then the camera slowly spirals away from her to show the lasting image of her dead body on the floor. The shocking thing about it is the unexpectation of it. Norman seemed to like Marion and showed no signs and had no reason to harm her, but as we find out, it is the mother side of him which drove him to commit this murder. His mother would not have been happy with him having another woman other than her in his life so through sheer jealousy; the mother side of him forced him to murder her.
I personally follow the opinion of most others in that psycho is a classic film and really do give credit to Alfred Hitchcock for using the bare basics of cinematic tools to create one of the greatest ever films. My opinion suggests that Hitchcock’s directing was the difference between this version of Psycho and the newer version that was made and was what made it a success.
