Psycho Analysis.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Psycho is a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers usually have frequent action through out. An example of this from the film is the most famous scene, the 'Shower scene'. This scene is not only the most famous scene in the film but the one of the most known cinema scenes ever. The scene is so famous due to the way it was filmed, the music, the cuts and the shots. This is such a famous scene that even people that have not seen the film know that scene, it's such a rememberable scene that people started getting afraid of having a shower because they realized how venerable they are in there and had baths instead. The music consists of screeching violins which creates a lot of drama while she is getting murdered in the scene by the psycho. The scene starts with the character having a shower then you see the shadow of the murderer and then the screeching music comes in and it all fits in well with the cuts that are made in the camera work as well. The scream is also very nerve racking due to it being so loud and realistic, a myth was that Hitchcock did not tell the character in the shower what was going to happen and just told her to stand in the shower which made the scream more authentic.

In Psycho there is a not really a hero, because the psycho murders many women, but at the end Marion Crane is about to get murdered by the psycho Norman and her boyfriend comes through the door in the nick of time and saves her life by grabbing the psycho. That is the only example of there being a hero in the film. There are many examples of suspense and shock, the shower scene is so early in the film and tricks the viewer accepting the character murdered as a main character but then is murdered early in the film. In the shower scene it starts with her entering the shower and then as the scene goes on the viewer sees someone come into the bathroom, and thats when the viewers are at the edge of their seat not knowing what was going to happen next, then Norman Bates opens up the shower curtain and there are a lot of camera angle changes in just this one scene, there are 50 cuts of different shots in that scene only. Another thing that makes this shot so famous is when the blood comes down the bath and goes down the drain then there's an extreme close up of her eye and then it slowly zooms out to reveal her dead body which is quite a chilling shot.

Hitchcock has a famous quote saying "Thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like." In this film this is true and is one of the best thrillers known to cinema even though it is so old, this is achieved due to the structure of the story and how the characters are presented to the audience, for example Norman has a hobby of stuffing birds of prey and in his office there are many pictures of naked women, this is strange but from all that we cannot say straight away that he is defiantly the murderer but these are some strange things to have in a room and that is also a strange hobby to have. Psycho is known as one of the greatest thrillers made by the ending where the whole story is basically explained in one scene where they explain why he did the murders and why he dressed as his mother. the structure of the film is very well done because through-out the film we think the mother is the murderer but instead we find out the murderer is indeed Norman because his insanity is all explained.