Psycho (1960)

Psycho is a film we watched within one of our media studies lessons and is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is a horror based during the time in 1960 in which a woman is desperate to marry her lover, Sam, but she can't due to Sam's financial difficulties. The woman, Marion, works at a bank and when told by her employer to put $40,000 in the bank instead she takes the money in hope of playing off Sams debt and starting a new life with him. After many other interruptions with the police and with switching vehicles she finds a hotel off the main road to stay in for a night called The Bates Motel. The hotel is run by a man who seems quiet and submissive to his mother.

The audience is deceived into thinking that the film only concerns the $40,000 and whether Marion can escape from being punished for what she did and live a happy life with her lover, Sam. But this is not the case and this means the audience will be shocked by the murder of Marion in the shower scene as it is unexpected. The audience are then aware that anything could happen at any point and are on the edge as to what might happen next or who may be killed.

Psycho shows signs of being a typical horror film in the clip of Arbogast meeting the mother below.

This clip starts off slow in what is happening, Arbogast takes a long time in making his way into the house and up the stairs which is building up the tension as the audience is unaware as to what may happen next, whether or not Arbogast is killed by the mother is not yet known and this puts the audience on the edge of their seats. This changes suddenly when he makes is to the top of the stairs, the music makes a sudden change and is no longer slow but fast paced and high in pitch. The mother makes quick and sudden movements to walk into the scene and kill Arbogast. These sudden changes are there to scare the audience, the contrast in the change of sound and movement within those few seconds are what will scare the person watching, they go from the tension and not knowing anything at all to the mother killing him very suddenly. These are things we associate with many horror films.

I believe that Norman Bates was the antagonist of the film but I would not call him a villain. Norman Bates isn't a villain like the ones you see in James Bond films who plan on taking over the world but is a man with a mental illness. The things he does, he does to cope with the loss of his mother. He has a multiple personality that he is unable to control, he actually believes his mother is still alive and that it is her and not him who is killing all these people. Norman Bates himself, without the side of his mother coming through, wasn't and isn't a bad person. If there had to be a hero in Psycho then Arbogast or Sam would be the closest you could get for trying to do what is right.

Primarily the greatness of Psycho comes from the way Hitchcock reveals things to the audience that they didn't expect to happen which happens at three moments within the film; when Marion is killed in the shower scene, when it is revealed that infact Mrs Bates has been dead for years and the revelation that Norman Bates is infact who he has been claiming to be his mother the entire time. The shower scene was not to be expected as the viewer is focused upon the trouble Marion has landed herself in, the viewer will undoubtedly want Marion to find Sam and marry him and live happily and by killing her off Hitchcock has fooled us into believing that Marion is the main character and that the film is entirely based upon her life. The discovery that infact Mrs Bates has been dead for years comes as a shock to the audience as they will then question who it is then who is killing all these people after having been led to believe for so long that it has been Mrs Bates. And finally the scene in which it is known that Norman Bates is dressing as his mother and killing all these people will illude audience after they have been led to believe that Norman Bates is just covering for his mother. The character of Norman Bates has acted shocked and appalled all this time when witnessing the aftermath of these murders so the audience will not believe at first that it was him.

Alfred Hitchcock extensively used red herrings, suspense and cliffhangers within his films. One of the major red herrings is when Marion is told that Normans mother lives up in the house and we can see Mrs Bates shadow in the window and we also see Mrs Bates shadow on several different occasions by the window but at the end of the movie we discover Mrs Bates is dead.
The use of music is also important in building the suspension within this movie.

The video above is of the visceral music used whenever something violent or shocking happens. Alfred Hitchcock uses this music suddenly. Usually the previous piece of music would be more focused on building the tension and be slower before this music is used. This piece of music is much like nails being  scratched against a blackboard in a sense.