Psycho Film Response

Alfred Hitchock’s complex psychological thriller, Psycho, birthed the first horror film of all time. It features some of the most amazing cinematography ever capture on film. The shower scene is one of the most famous and iconic scene. We see in the beginning of this scene Marion Crane close the shower curtain then a close-up of her face right after. Her being naked in the shower emphasizes she is vulnerable. There are frequent cuts to the shower head which symbolizes the shower head is watching her. At one point, the camera is shot from the prescriptive of the shower head. This almost foreshadows that something is not right, the audience awaits for something bad to happen. A shadowed figure with a knife in his hand tears the shower curtain open and there’s an extreme close-up of her mouth as she is screaming, which captured the shock and fear of Marion. From this point on, all the shots progressively speed as the killer repeatedly stabs Marion. Although there is only one shot where the knife is going through Marion’s skin, the editing/cuts helps the audience believes she is actually being stabbed. Majority of the violence we think is going on isn’t actually there, our imagination led us to believe there is. The music also helps contribute the terror in the film. The screeching music adds to the horror, it is a sharp piercing sound. After the mother leaves we see a close-up of Marion’s hand sliding down the shower wall, the pace of the music changes to a slower pitch and slower cuts which tells the audience something very bad has happened. Now Marion lays dead on the floor, and there is a close-up of her eyeball which completely open, the camera pulls back and the only sound is the running shower water.