Psycho Analysis

                         
"Psycho" is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was made in 1960. It stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.

The Plot

Marion Crane is a Phoenix office worker and she is tired of her life; she wants to get married to her lover, Sam, but she cant for he doesn't have the money. Her boss trusts her with $40,000 but instead of putting it in the bank, she runs away with it. However, on the way to Sam's California store, she gets caught in a storm, and so pulls into The Bates Motel. The hotel is managed by a quiet man named Norman Bates, who seems to be controlled by his mother.

Some of Hitchcock's thoughts on this movie is that the audience immediately thinks that the movie is about the $40,000, so when Marion gets murdered, it leaves the audience in shock, for they thought she was the main character and the main character never dies halfway through a movie, so it makes the audience apprehensive, knowing that anything could happen and anyone could be killed.
The audience also knows that there is a murderer in Bates Motel, however they don't know when or where s/he will strike next, so they have to be ready always, which creates suspense throughout the movie.

This is an archetypal thriller for it contains non-diagetic music, it contains thrilling music whenever something is going to happen, getting the audience alert and building up suspense and excitement. Also, it creates tension throughout the whole movie, the first part being when Marion stopped her car to let people cross the road and her boss saw her after she told him she was going home for she felt ill, so the audience wondered what was going to happen next; was she the psycho? Was she going to kill him?

"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action." This is shown in "Psycho" in three different examples. These examples are:

• The shower scene
• The car scene
• The staircase scene

The shower scene is the most iconic famous scene to be known in the history of horrors. "Psycho" wasn't seen as Hitchcock's best film, but it was the most memorable, and Horrors nowadays owe a lot to this movie. Especially the shower scene.

  

This scene is very fast pacing with frequent action for she is in the shower washing herself and then suddenly a silhouette appears on the shower curtain with a knife, making the audience wonder how Marion will get out of this situation. They assume that because she is made out to be the main character, she must survive, but then she dies and it leaves a big impression on the audience, for nobody is safe. The scene also has non-diagetic music, quite thrilling as well to show that this scene is going to turn out badly. Then Marion gets stabbed numerous times and it is all very fast paced throughout the scene.

The car scene is when Marion is trying to get away from her old life; she is driving away but there is a storm, and so she can't see her way properly. Throughout her journey, she is imagining what she has left behind; what her boss and colleague would be saying, what her sister would be saying and everyone's reaction on her departure. The scene contains non-diagetic music and it starts to get louder once we hear everyone talking, making the scene very chilling and like something is going to happen. This scene creates a Red Herring, which is something that we think is going to happen but doesn't, for it makes her seem like she is the Psycho.

 The staircase scene is when Arbogast, the detective, is trying to dig out information on the mother. He goes into the house and up the stairs, however, it shows us a different angle, where a door opens and a silhouette of someone walks out. As Arbogast gets to the top of the staircase, a woman attacks him, presumably the mother, and stabs him, then he falls down the stairs, it is all fast pacing action, and then when he gets to the bottom of the staircase, she stabs him numerous times. The music is chilling, it is like someone scratching their nails on a chalkboard, and it creates tension and chills throughout the scene.

 

"Resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains."
I don't think this is true of "Psycho" for there aren't any heroes. Norman Bates plays out to be a sweet innocent guy in the meeting of Marion, and when she was murdered in the shower, he recovered her body and seemed alarmed by it, making him seem like the hero, but then he started acting suspicious, dumping the body along with all of her stuff into her car which then sunk in a lake. Also, the detective was killed by Norman's "mother" so he can't have been very heroic trying to thwart the plans of the villains.

"Devices such as Red herrings, suspence and cliffhangers and used extensively."
"Psycho's" "true ingeniousness lies in it's construction." There are two major Red Herrings in this movie; the shower scene and the revelation of "mother." The shower scene is a red herring for the audience do not expect the supposed main character to die, but she does, and the revelation of mother is a red herring for we do not expect the murderer to be Norman dressed as his mother, we expect his mother to have faked her death, not for him to be dressing up as her, pretending she is still alive and blaming murders on her.
 Also, in this scene, there is tension building for when Marion's sister turns "Mrs Bates" around, we see that she is a skeleton, and so she is dead, so the audience then wonders who the actual murderer is. The music brings up the most tension though, for as soon as "Mother" is turned around, it intensifies and gets louder, gets more chilling, and so we know we are going to find out who the killer is.

The music plays quite a big part in the building suspense. It lets the audience know when something is going to happen for quite chilling music starts playing in the background, and so the audience knows that someone is going to die.

"A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he must present obstacles the hero must overcome."
This is true of "Psycho" for the movie is all about the murderer. It is all about the family and friends of Marion trying to find out what has happened to her, and why. The movie is called "Psycho" for it is about the murderer, and the murderer is the Psycho. Also, the psycho has to make sure the people trying to figure out what is going on cannot fault his/her plans, and so he has to present obstacles; murdering them. The villain in this movie is the innocent, sweet, insane Norman Bates.

Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like." He has succeeded in this film for although it wasn't classified as his best film, it was still horrifying. It still created suspense, tension and excitement, and it showed the insane. These people exist, serial killers do exist, they are mentally insane and that is why i feel that Hitchcock has succeeded in "Psycho."