“PSYCHO” (1960)This thriller includes suspense, tension and excitement.

PSYCHO (1960)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel)

Stars:

Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles

HITCHCOCK THOUGHTS

The audience know there is a murderer in the house. They don’t know when s/he will strike again but to be suspenseful they must know it could happen any minute. However the audience think that it’s the mother who has been committing the mother, but it actually wasn’t, it was the man who owned the hotel who was committing it.

Hitchcock stressed that as the apprehension increases there is less and less violence on screen.

HITCHCOCK THOUGHTS

In “Psycho” the audience initially think the film is about $40,000 and the murder becomes a shock. This shock makes the audience apprehensive for the rest of the film – anything could happen / anyone could be killed.

This shocks the audience and makes them feel apprehensive for the rest of the film, because now anything may possibly happen, or anybody could be killed but the audience doesn’t know who.

“PSYCHO” (1960)

“Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action,”

This was especially applied when the young blonde was taking a shower, unexpectedly you see a shadow behind the curtain with a knife. Then all of a sudden the you lady is being stabbed, this creates a sense of suspense because everything is happening in the heat of the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY

Also the audience were in belief that this young women was going to be the main character, but all of a sudden her life was taken which left the audience wondering who will be the new main character.

“PSYCHO” (1960)

“Resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains.”

In this movie you could say that Sam and Lila are the heroes, as they were the ones who found out that something wasn’t right about her sister going missing. So they hired out an investigator to help find her sister, but then he also went missing so they took it amongst themselves to go and find them. Then they found out that Norman was behind this, and they called the police and got justice for what happened to Marlon and the inspector.

NORMAN BATES

Hitchcock said it is important to avoid cliché and repetition –particularly with regard to character – eg murderers can be charming and the heroes flawed.

Norman Bates was based on two characters. It was based on Ed Geinmurder case.

Bates had suffered serve emotional abuse as a young child when he lived with his mother, Norma. She brainwashed to him that sexual intercourse is sinful. Bates killed his mother and faked a note that Norma killed herself. And he developed dissociative disorder, which is why he thought that he was his mother.

“DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGS AND CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”

Story-wise, Psycho is not extraordinary; its true brilliance lies in its construction. Hitchcock has developed the film in such a way that it consistently flouts audience expectations.

There are two major surprises:

1. The shower scene murder, this was when the young lady came to stay at his motel and she was going to take a shower after coming back from having dinner with Bates and his “mother”. So whilst she was having her shower, we see a shadow appear, which caused a lot of suspense, because all of a sudden this shadow brings out a knife opens the curtains and begins stabbing her. As the audience, they would have thought that Bates would have come to save her but he didn’t, and the girl dies but he didnt come and help until after she had passed and he dragged her body into the car and made it drown in the lake outside the motel.

2. The final revelation about Mother. At the end when Mary’s sister Lila went into the basement to try and find Mary and Norman comes in to try and kill her, but Sam stops that from happening and then he catches Norman and reveals that it is not Bates mother, IT IS ACTAULLY BATES!

“DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGS AND CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”

A viewer who sees the film for the first time without knowing about either will experience the full impact of what Hitchcock intended.

The greatest shock for the uninitiated is the early exit of Janet Leigh. Cause we would have thought that she was going to be the main character, cause she had stole some money from her boss. But this was cut short when she had been murdered in the shower, creating a whole new equilibrium. Whenever anyone speaks about Psycho, the first images that come to mind are those of Janet Leigh being hacked to death in the shower. The scene is so famous that even people who have not seen the film are aware of it. We actually see: a knife, blood (actually chocolate syrup), water, a woman's naked body (with certain parts strategically concealed from the camera) and only a brief showing of the blade penetrating the flesh.

This is doubly unexpected because, to this point, the screenplay had tricked us into accepting Marion as the main character but she actually wasn’t.

“DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGSAND CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”

When she dies and the point-of-view shifts to Norman Bates', the audience is puzzled. Because in their minds they thought that Janet Leigh was going to be the main character but then things changed.

In order to keep this crucial aspect of the film secret when Psychoopened in 1960, there were no advance screenings and no one was admitted to a showing after the feature had started.

The main suspense I think in the movie, is the shower scene. This is because at first everything was calm. When she arrived at the hotel you wouldn’t expect that something would happen to her. She was just casually having a shower then all of a sudden she gets murdered, and then the whole equilibrium changes and Norman Bates is the new main character.

“PSYCHO” (1960) AND THRILLER CONVENTIONS.“A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome.”

This is true when it comes to Psycho. This because Norman Bates was the villain but he was undercover because we was made to believe that it was Normans mother who was the murder, but it was actually him. This had shocked the audience a lot because we was made to follow that Norman Bates mother was the villain. And you could say that Marys sister and Sam are the heroes as they revealed that Norman is the murder.

I believe that Norman played a good villain because nobody would have thought that he was the murder, even at the beginning you wouldn’t even know that someone would be murdered in the movie.

“”THE MCGUFFIN”

Hitchcock said the McGuffin is the plot device that causes the action to happen.

The McGuffin usually comes in the first part of the film and sometimes returns at the end.

In his thrillers the audience don’t really care about the McGuffin.

In this film the McGuffin is Marion stealing the money.

DO THESE NARRATIVE THEORIES APPLY TO THIS FILM?WHERE? WHEN? BE SPECIFIC!

1. Vladimir Propp – character types – In this film you could say that there was a Vladimir Propp because the villain you could say, could be Norman Bates and the hero Sam. You could also say that towards the end Mary’s Sister was the helper, who helped Sam and the previous detective to gather some clues about the whereabouts of her sister. This film did not include a Donor or a false hero by any chance

2. Todorov – This film definitely did include a equilibrium, at first it started with Mary running away from her boss with his money. So this has the audience believing that the plot of the story is going to be Mary running away from her boss and people could be coming after her. But then she arrives at this motel and is all of a sudden killed, which causes a disruption to the equilibrium. Then we have a new equilibrium this is where Norma Bates is now the new main character and our focus is mainly based on him now.

3. Roland Barthes – The Enigma codes is also used in this film. The distruption in thEgnima is a closed text as the disruption was resolved at the end. When Sam and Mary’s sister had found out about Norman Bates they had found him and had him arrested. Which means that now there is nothing to worry about, we also find out why Norman acted this way. It was because of his up bringing with his mother.