Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and an American citizen from 1955. Alfred Hitchcock was the acknowledged master of the thriller, which he virtually invented. He was a technician who deftly blended sex and suspense. He began his filmmaking career in 1919. Alfred Hitchcock is a master of the suspense thriller; he was noted for his meticulously drawn storyboards that determined his camera angles and for his cameo walk-ons in his own films. Alfred Hitchcock is famous for playing on fears and emotions of his audience by manipulating them. In his films he involves his spectator in the scenic tension using techniques that will be discussed in this essay. He is famous for transporting his viewers into his films.

I will be exploring Alfred Hitchcock’s techniques and the relationship between text, screen and the spectator. I have chosen the film ‘Psycho’, Alfred Hitchcock’s most popular film. ‘Psycho’ is a tense story about lust and jealousy.

All in all, the movie is about one troubled man Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), and his ill-fated mother. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) who steals $40,000 from her employer, for her boyfriend Sam (John Gavin). Marion runs away with the money, then decides to return the money, but suddenly becomes unable to, stays at the Bates Motel. The keeper of the Motel is Norman Bates. Norman Bates is a shy and friendly guy but controlled by his over protective and jealous mother. When Marion goes into the shower, Norman’s mother stabs her to death.

Unfortunately for Norman, Marion leaves behind a concerned boyfriend, Sam, her sister Lila (Vera Miles) and private investigator Aborgast (Martin Balsam). Sam and Lila’s searching for Marion is to no avail, until they meet Norman. The ending of the film is surely surprising, throughout the whole film, it shows that Norman Bate’s mother is the murderer, but we find out Norman himself is the murderer and his mother has been dead for sometime.

Alfred Hitchcock employs various techniques within his films. Notable is his technique of, ‘unconventional setting as threatening’. In this technique Hitchcock shoots horror scenes where evil is not expected. For instant the motel is a place to just stop by, so we would not expect evil to happen. The old lady in the house is not expected to be evil, because the audience feels sorry for her, since she is an invalid old lady. We wouldn’t expect an old lady to be evil. Also in the shower scene you would feel safe in the shower and you wouldn’t expect to get murdered. In this scene, the main protagonist of the film is killed at the start of the film. The spectators do not suspect that she would be murdered; it gives a feeling that anything could happen anytime. The spectator thinks hat the shower is a safe place; Marion thinks she’s free from danger. This technique involves ‘unexpectedness and shock tactics’.

In ‘Psycho’ the ‘unsuspected character is revealed to be the monster’. The unsuspected character is Norman Bates, through out the movie the audiences think that Norman is the innocent man, and his mother committed all the murders. At the end of the movie we find out that Norman had schizophrenia, and in actual fact killed all those people posing as his mother. Hitchcock uses ‘complex characters and sympathetic characters’. In the film ‘Psycho’, the audiences feel sorry for Norman Bates. In human nature, you wouldn’t get people completely good or bad. First of all the audience thought that Norman Bates was a good person. It is only at the end that they find out that Norman killed all these people.

Hitchcock in his film uses ‘heroes and heroines with a nasty streak’ who are not completely good. For instance Marion is suppose to be a good character and she should be trustworthy. But when she steals the money, the spectator is shocked because she goes against the conventions of cinema. She is supposed to be the heroine and she should be completely good and not bad. Throughout the film the spectator thinks that Norman Bates was an ordinary man and not an empathetic villain. The audiences feel sorry for Norman Bates, because he commits murder for the love of his mother.

Alfred Hitchcock uses skillful direction through camera techniques. Hitchcock makes the audience see or view events through the eyes of the characters. When Norman looks through a hole from his office, he sees Marion undressing. At that scene the spectator would experience the pleasure and guilt that Norman experiences, thereby implicating the audience in Norman’s activity, this is termed as ‘voyeurism’.

Another technique that Hitchcock uses is ‘identification with the character’ (spectator with protagonist). The audiences view the murders through the eyes of the murderer. This forces us to identify with the murderer.

Alfred Hitchcock always entertains his audience with sexual stimulation by providing excitement and pleasure. At the starting of the film, the audiences are attracted to Sam and Marion in the bedroom together. This quickly gets the audiences attention, to want to watch the movie. Hitchcock’s film allows us to express our ‘sexual and violent urges’. At the starting of the film when Marion and Sam are in the bedroom, the spectator would feel as if they are the characters and enjoy the sexual stimulation, so we as spectators should not be watching this because this is like Norman watching through the hole, it is voyeurism. Also when the murders happen the spectator would feel they are killing someone they hate by taking their anger out. The film provides a catharsis for their violent urges.

Hitchcock is often seen as a ‘misogynist’. He portrays women as weak or vulnerable. Marion was the main victim of the film, because she stole the $40,000 from her employer and ran away with it. It also the men are the strong ones who instigate violence against the passive ones, Norman Bates who murdered Marion in the shower scene and Sam being required to save Lila who could not save herself.

Hitchcock also uses the thinking of ‘Freud’. Freud believes that young girls and boys have sexual feelings for their mothers and fathers. Norman Bates kills his mother and her boyfriend because he had sexual feelings for his mother, he was jealous. This caused him to have a split personality; half of him is his mother and the other half himself, because he was raised up by his mother alone, to believe that sex was sinful. He killed his mother when he caught her with her lover. He could not accept his mother was gone, so he created fantasy of her still being alive.

Alfred Hitchcock appeared in his own film at the start standing outside Marion’s office. This is the famous ‘cameo appearance’ and encourages the audience to watch the film carefully so as to spot Hitchcock. The ‘famous McGuffin’ in the film is the $40,000. The famous McGuffin is a term used to describe a device, which keeps the hero and the heroine preoccupied and the plot running.

The ‘subject suspense’, which Hitchcock creates, draws the audience into the film. This occurs from the onset when Marion is murdered. Marion is the main character in the film, and following her death we want to know who killed her.

Hitchcock is very skilful in ‘misguiding the viewer’. The spectator doesn’t know that Norman has a multiple personality. Throughout the whole movie the spectator thinks that Norman’s mother did the murders, and also that there are two characters in the house, Norman and his mother. When the villain is going to strike the hero or the heroine don’t know the villain is there, so the “all knowing audience” want to warn the hero and heroine. When in the film Lila goes into the house to search for the mother, and the audience knows she’ll get murdered, so wish to warn her.

Alfred Hitchcock uses birds in a sinister way. He is quite good at portraying birds as sinister and hideous looking. Norman’s hobby is taxidermy; he has many dead birds in his office, which later on relates to his treatment of his mother’s body. He shows close up shots of their eyes and beaks. Another ‘eye motif’ Hitchcock uses is different objects to represent the eye. The plughole in the shower looks like the eye. The camera spirals into the plughole and then spirals out of Marion’s eye. Also the eye sockets of the skeleton of the mother are represented in a sinister way. When Marion is murdered and the blood is going down the plughole. The blood/water is spiraling down the plughole. Here a very affective ‘spiraling technique’ is used. Hitchcock’s films contains eyes as an on-going motif, this could be seen in this film when the shower scene take place, Norman watching Marion undressed, his mother’s skeleton and furthermore the bird’s eye.

Often a certain action or certain ‘music’ signifies to the audience that a murder is going to occur. When the Private Investigator enters the house, the non-diagetic music begins to play which signifies to the audience that the murder will occur. The non-diagetic music plays on the fears and emotions of the audience. For instance when the character of Marion is very nervous, the tension builds up more, and the non-diagetic sound increases. Diagetic music is there when the audience can hear it and also the characters can hear it. This happened when Aborgast goes to the house and when he goes up the stairs the sound of the mother’s door opening precedes murder.

Hitchcock often uses ‘explicit titles’ such as Notorious, Vertigo and Frenzy. In this case the audience is lead to look for a psycho in every character. Throughout the whole film the audience think that Norman’s mother is the ‘Psycho’, because every single person who comes to Bates Motel, the mother kills.

‘Voice over’ occurs when the audience knows what the character is thinking. An example is when Marion is in the car, and thinks about the money and her disappearing.

A special technique that Hitchcock uses is ‘chiaroscuro’, which is the combination of the light and shade. When the mother is in the window, the shadow in he film signifies evilness. Norman Bates figure is often seen silhouetted indicating the dark side to his nature.

At the opening of the film, the camera is like a bird looking over the city and going into the window, this is achieved by using a ‘pan shot’, this technique also ends the film as the camera retreats from Norman leaving him in his cell.

The spectator sees the events through the eye of various characters. When Marion’s murder happens, the camera sees the character from the eye of the murderer this is a ‘point of view shot’.

In my opinion, the film ‘Psycho’ is a very significant film in the history of filmmaking. ‘Psycho’ will leave you flabbergasted, mouth open, eyes fixed and speechless. Perhaps I am exaggerating, but that is how many others and I felt when we saw the movie. This movie can be psychoanalysed and explained and still will be perceived as complex. However this does not detract from the sheer success of the film. This movie is pure entertainment. It is very enjoyable, and if you are of the age 15 and up, you should have already seen the film.

This black and white film is definitely worth watching and worth the time, as Hitchcock chose to make this film black and white that becomes part of it’s impact. This is Hitchcock at his finest. All his techniques are displayed within this complex movie.

Alfred Hitchcock truly lives up to his name, Master of suspense and he deserves to be called an Auteur due to his unique style of filmmaking and his on-going influence. I think that Alfred Hitchcock is a fantastic director, and he is entitled to be the Master of Suspense. Also after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho’, I would want to watch his other films, because I thought that the film ‘Psycho’ was a truly fabulous film.

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