G321 Thriller research. Case Study. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

Name of film: Psycho
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Date of film release: 16th June 1960
Country where made: USA

Hitchcock’s Psycho is filmed in black and white as a tribute to classic 1940s noir thrillers.

Hitchcock focuses on music to create a scary atmosphere. The sound graphics used in the credits also help to create this kind of chilling atmosphere.

The film begins with an Ariel pan shot. The time and place appears at the bottom of the screen to help to give an idea that day has some importance.

The camera then zooms into a hotel window. Hitchcock does this to show that he feels that cinema is voyeuristic. It also creates a sense of no privacy and being watched.

There is then a shot of a woman lying in bed, with a man standing in front of the bed and getting dressed. The first impression this stimulates from the audience for the woman is that she is a whore/sex object. It also suggests the woman as a femme fatale: deviant and manipulative.

The conversation that then follows suggests a secret relationship and also shows the woman as vulnerable.

Hitchcock uses an unglamorous, claustrophobic setting (a cheap hotel). These types of settings feature in many different thrillers.

When we see the woman (Marion crane) in this scene, she is wearing white underwear. This indicates purity. (Later on in the film, when Crane decides to steal the money, her underwear changes to black. This indicates corruption, temptation and moral descant.)

Another (very famous) sequence in Psycho is the shower sequence (and the conversation between Marion Crane and Norman Bates shortly before this).

There is a repeated theme of birds throughout the film. Bates has lots of stuffed birds in his office, and Hitchcock often has shots where they seem to be part of his body. This gives the audience a sense of entrapment. The names of the two characters give clues to their personalities and fate. Marion ‘Crane’ suggests she, like the birds, will die. There is also a link between the birds being passive and her character being passive. ‘Bates’ (or ‘baits’) suggests he lures prey and is predatory.

This predatory nature also appears when there is an extreme close up of Bates’ eye watching Crane through a hole in the wall.

In the shower sequence, Hitchcock uses close ups of Crane’s legs to show how vulnerable she is. The shower implies she is trying to wash away her sins. Again, the use of a confined space is used for intimidation and claustrophobia. Although as an audience we don’t actually see Crane getting stabbed, the implied violence is just as scary. We only see a shadow of the person who is stabbing her, which adds mystery.