Psycho is without doubt a masterpiece Essays

Psycho is without doubt a masterpiece Essays Psycho is without doubt a masterpiece Essay Psycho is without doubt a masterpiece Essay The director, Hitchcock, deliberately used many devices and techniques to inject suspense and horror into the audience. One way that he did this was by using clever camera angles. Another was how he made use of fast-moving camera angles and sound to a good effect. One of the factors that makes Psycho a good film was that it is not predictable, for instance the main character and biggest star in the film, dies a third of the way into the film, plus all through the film little red herrings and unexpected plot twists are thrown in eg. the money was a red herring. All the red herrings and twists improve the film and make it more tense. Hitchcock was a master at positioning the camera angle, he could get it so that it could create suspense and horror and not give anything away at the same time. Another noticeable style of Hitchcocks was the speed that everything went at, all the horror and scary parts were built up slowly and werent sudden. Hitchcock built up the anxiety and tenseness with scenes like the scene with Marion driving out of Phoenix and seeing her boss crossing the road and the scene with the policeman. During the shower scene, Hitchcock cleverly puts high pitch screeches in time with the stabbing of the knife; this giving a chilling effect on the audience. He also changes the camera angles very fast during this scene, especially when the killer is actually stabbing Marion, the camera switches between them very quickly as he changed the camera angle over 50 times in about a minutes footage. Hitchcock cleverly concealed the killers face behind the shower curtain and as we see them creep up to the shower, this creates a sense of horror and suspense for the audience. After the curtain has been pulled back, the camera quickly looks at the whole of Marions face so that it takes the whole of the screen up and she unleashes a horrific scream but this has a greater effect due to the whole face shot. The blood, pouring down the plughole, is a recurring motif that Hitchcock uses, it symbolises the bottomless holes also shown in the swamps Norman used to hide the bodies. The blood was also the main reason for the movie being in black and white rather than colour because Hitchcock knew that it wouldnt pass the censors if it was in colour. Another show of symbolism was the eyes of Norman when he was peeping into Marions room and Marions eyes when the camera slowly moves out from in the shower, immediately after the murder. Hitchcocks style is definitely slow whilst building up suspense and conning the audience to think and feel what he wants, this is shown when Norman is clearing up after the murder, he is doing so very slowly and methodically, so that the atmosphere is very tense and the audience are manipulated into wanting Norman to succeed in cleaning up the evidence because they see him as a scared young man protecting his mother and they think that he wouldnt hurt anyone. The scene with Arbogasts death is a fine example of Hitchcocks excellent directing. He started by showing another full face shot whilst he is taking off his hat and this makes him look more vulnerable. Then, slowly and building suspense, he climbs the stairs and he is looking about nervously and the music is changing pitch and speed quickly giving the impression that the killer could jump out at any moment and then, when he is at the top and the killer does jump out, Hitchcock used a clever crane shot to hide the killers face and show all the horrors of the murder at the same time. He continued, for more effect by keeping the full face shot as Arbogast fell down the stairs and then switched to the side view from the floor as the killer finished him off. Hitchcock used other scenes to cause tenseness and suspense, mostly before the first death, like the traffic policeman scene and the car salesman scene. The policeman was quite a sinister looking character, mostly because he wore glasses and you couldnt see his eyes. Also, he had a very unemotional face with only one facial expression. The car salesman scene was tense because of Marions suspicious behaviour and the policeman watching her. Hitchcock used his skill as a director to create suspense and tension by using clever camera angles, fast moving shots, a slow pace of building up to an event and sound all to a great effect. A further example of this is when Lila is looking around the house and she is moving very slowly around upstairs and Hitchcock is using shots reflected from a mirror. This is meant to confuse the audience and spook them. When she goes down to the cellar, this is where the fast editing and sound comes into the equation. Also, Hitchcock used a swinging light bulb to cast light and dark on the set; this was real genius as it increased the horror. One last example of Hitchcocks fine directing was at the very end when Norman was sitting in the police station and the camera was zooming in close to his face, just as the scene was about to change, he merged the skull of mother slightly with his face; this was obviously because he wanted the face to stick in the mind of the audience and haunt them. Overa ll, Hitchcock used a combination of camera trickery and admirable symbolism to produce a suspense classic that, not only is popular forty years on, but has inspired other more recent horror films.