Psycho

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Joseph Stefano
Music: Bernard Herrmann

Norman Bates: Anthony Perkins
Marion Crane: Janet Leigh


In media we watched the classic suspense/horror ‘Psycho’ as the
first of four film screenings. ‘Psycho’ was directed by
Hitchcock in 1960, and is probably the most famous and best of his films. I had already seen the
film before, and even the second time watching it considered it one of my favourites.

Two scenes really stuck out for me as being the scariest. The fist of which was obviously the iconic shower scene. The jumpy cuts and quick, disorientating pace was in my opinion quite shocking. The scene runs for 3 minutes and features 50 cuts and more than 70 different angles. Most of the shots are Cu’s. These close shots draw the audience into the scene making the scene feel longer and more intense. Additionally it makes it feel more uncontrolled, and more violent than if the shots were just presented alone or at wider angles.

The second scene that stuck out for me was the very final scene (video clip below), in my opinion this is the scariest. Just after the conclusive scene where the detective is explaining what happened, we think all the scary parts to the film are over, but then the camera forward tracks down a corridor, and into a plain white room. Norman Bates is in it wrapped in a blanket. Here we hear his mother’s voice in his head. The scariest line of the film in my opinion is; ‘I’m not even going to swat that fly, I hope they are watching, they’ll see, and they’ll know, they’ll say why she wouldn’t even harm a fly’ this sentence shows how truly insane Norman Bates is, as he says this he bows his head slightly and gives a haunting devilish smile to the camera, that really lingers in your mind.

One aspect of the film that I think is outstanding and that has a huge impact in the overall effect is the acting. Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates is fantastic as he really portrays the Psycho well and really believably. I sometimes find acting in old films to be slightly over the top and over dramatic however this was not the case. At first Norman Bates comes across as endearing, kind and thoughtful, yet at the end we see him for what he really is, and Anthony plays both sides brilliantly.

Another aspect of the film which I think is very affective that really adds to the tension, is the music by Herrmann. Even before Marion arrives at the Motel when she is driving to it scary, eerie music is played, building the suspense. It made me frightened and on edge before anything had happened. Then of course that famous high pitched music for the shower scene makes it far more dramatic, I think if you were to watch the film with the sound turned off, it wouldn’t be half as scary.

All in all I think Psycho is a great film, when we were watching it as a class, many people laughed at certain points that were meant to be frightening , i.e. the death of the detective falling down the stairs, as it did look amateur compared to the special effects we see in films nowadays. However what I love about this film is the way Hitchcock builds the suspense so affectively, and despite the lack of special effects it still greatly frightened me and had a big impact.