Psycho

Today we watched the film from the Director Alfred Hitchcock called Psycho, the film was made in 1960 None of the other Alfred Hitchcock films have had as much as an impact as Psycho on American psyche.and it was a large Box office hit and as time has moved on to be a big fascination in the american society as they experienced something so different,Psycho was such a big hit hat there was a remake in 1998
Originally Psycho was a Novel by Robert Bloch (picture 1), then made into a screenplay by Joseph Stefano (picture 2) who accepted but then denied the chances to do The Bird (1963) and Marnie (1964) both from Alfred Hitchcock.

In psycho there were many famous film stars the three main stars and their characters are Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, Janet Leigh as Marion Crane and Vera Miles as Lila Crane

The plot of Psycho contains a MacGuffin (A plot device that leads you to believe there's a original plot when there is another motive within the fictitious storyline) for example the plot of Psycho is, Marion Crane a office worker in Phoenix is fed up with the way life has treated her,forced to meet with her secret lover through her lunch breaks since he would have to pay alimony if they wed, suddenly Marion steals $40,000 from her employer's client and subsequently encounters a motel owner who has been too long under the domination of his Mother.
As we watched the film we realised that the real threat isn't Marion Crane but a deranged mind ,a mad "man".
A thriller is described as a fast pacing and frequent action there are many examples at which this is present in psycho:
the most famous scene in the world is the Shower scene from psycho which also made Janet Leigh even more famous

Within this scene there is a slow start which we know can build up attention just as well as as a fast pace  because Marion is always moving although not fast she is always in motion but the main part is when she is getting stabbed you can tell something is going to go wrong  but the fast pacing of the attack adds more effect, we need to keep an eye on the motion of the knife and Marion trying to protect her self  then we look at the effect of the music and how the blood trickles down the drain and the shower curtain being pulled off one by one these all cause an effect making us jumpy  another scene that does this is the staircase  it also starts off very slow causing suspicion while he is walking up the steps and becomes fast paced at the end of the scene when he is falling down the stairs,yet again the pace of the music has added effect

Thrillers are also defined by their resourceful heroes who thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains.within psycho there is no obvious hero but if you really look at what each character does I think you can identify a hero in my opinion Sam Loomis and Lila Crane are the heroes,Although the true heroic action comes close to the end of the film I have this opinion because Sam and Lila  never give up the search for his lover/her sister  and in the End scene they make a brilliant plan to find out what is going on which they succeed in even though there are aspects that make us feel the character for example Lila Crane is being foolish for trapping her self but unconsciously to us and the character  we are being led to the truth then when we see the skeleton and Norman in his mothers clothing Sam is holding Norman back, disarming him and in the end put him into prison this is heroic as Sam is resourceful and thwarts Normans plan to also kill Lila.


Another way Thrillers normally have devices that cause effect this is suspense red herring and cliff hangers are used frequently
Psycho hasn't got an amazing plot it is actually pretty basic but the construction of the film  that develops the film Alfred Hitchcock has done a very good job with certain scenes such as the shower and stairs scene you see above as these both bring shock to the viewer,makes us think psychologically and doesn't contain our own expectations always surprising us. if the viewer has no idea what is to happen within the film they will experience the force of Alfred Hitchcock's device and why he intended this.The most unbelievable detail of the film is when Marion Crane is killed because through out the start of the film we are lead to believe she is a main role this is an example of the screenplay tricking us.
When this film was in theatres they were not allowed to enter any other time apart from at the start of the film  Alfred Hitchcock planned this as he didn't want the order of the film to be compromised or anyone to believe the main character is Norman Bates.This also leads to the element of suspense and how it is used in Psycho below is a scene which really builds suspense in a lot of aspects such as Music,what we see.


The first aspect of this scene that fills us with suspense is the Music because in the background  it seems like a violin or an cello  these instruments are always used to make a tense scene where you feel its right to be suspicious also the pace of the music is fast making it an intense scene as it puts our nerves on edge
Another aspect is what we see one of the main effects on me is the link between the title Psycho and the look Marion has within this scene like a psycho she smiles at normally unpleasant thoughts her ideas of what the other characters are saying a made up from her head,anyone can imagine someone else's thoughts but the most mentally ill people assume people are talking about them making them paranoid,look included allows us to feel that something is wrong with this character instantly making us wary of  her making us think she is the Psycho. Also we see that a rain starts in this scene this gives us an idea that the journey she is going on isn't as simple as it seems and that it is unclear where she is going  this is supported by  the reaction of Marion when she cannot see the road as she reacts in panic this also makes us believe that she may have a crash or any other difficulties.

A thriller normally always has a villain involved presenting obstacles in this case we are initially made to believe that it is Normans mother who is the villain but it is actually Norman himself  even though we are oblivious to this we are shown with subliminal messages that we are not aware of until we a shown showing this is the picture bellow the fact that there are stuffed Birds everywhere allows us to believe that Norman is dangerous and a predator  it also supports the fact that Norman likes to preserve dead things not for beauty but to remind him for example his mother, the obstacles that Norman presents is hiding information or clues from the seekers of the information for example he cleans up Marion's dead Body and when he pushes the car into the swamp these are ways Norman causes obstacles as it isn't helping or isn't leading the investigator to the real truth.

Alfred Hitchcock said that a thriller must allow the audience to "put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what its like" I would say Alfred has succeeded in countless scenes within the film  because many times within the film I reacted felt a kind of fear that was thrilling yet interesting and I'm sure if more people had seen this film they would agree and people who are reading this blog and have watched it are probably thinking about there reactions to Psycho, there are many devices used such as on and off screen sound that have a on going effect that gives us an insight to what will happen but despite this we still have a reaction this is because of  Alfred's architectural approach to the common film , we cannot forget about the main scenes in this film that are shown above "Psycho is a brilliant excursion into fear that pushes many of our primal buttons" this is a review that also expresses my view.

The shower scene
If you have seen Psycho the scene that comes to mind is the shower scene and the first images we see is of the attack on Marion  this scene, even if you haven't seen the film you have been told or are aware of it. as  we have said before music is one of the main reasons why a scene has a high effect in this case it is Bernard Herrmann's strident, discordant  music has been used in many other films to add an appearance of a psycho.

Brilliance in any scene lies within amazing editing in Psycho a lot of the editing is left imagined as we only have been hinted Alfred Hitchcock's intentions.
In the shower scene we see a knife ,blood which is actually chocolate syrup,water and a woman's naked body but separately we see the body is concealed strategically and we do not see the blade sink into the skin all we do see is the brief stab and we hear the blade sink in but the rest is our imagination making the scene full in our minds,basically filling up the gaps  this is another reason others may consider Psycho mild compared to today's thrillers and horrors as they depicted as gruesome and very graphic.
Some extra information is that after Psycho was released it was said to spawn a group of people who had Ablutophobia which is a phobia of bathing/ showers  this is because Psycho made there viewers understand how truly vulnerable they are while they take showers this led them to start taking baths a victim of this phobia was Janet Leigh her self  she claimed after the film she never took a shower again.