[cinema class]Psycho

Attachments:Hello everyone today we will discuss the movie psycho. The director makes use of the camera to show people what he wants them to think. This is show when the camera zooms into the money that was stolen. Even though the money had no significance, other than to kick off the plot, it made people think that the money was the main source of the drama, and what everyone was after. Secondly he used the used the camera when he zoomed in on the girl’s abdomen when the knife had stricken her. In our mind he put in the image of the girl who has been stabbed repeatedly. Even though that never was shown. In sense that made the movie more psychological and goes with the main villain who is a psycho. The director also manipulates the people’s sense of time such as a lot of time has passed in short of amount of time. This is seen mostly when the girl drives to the psycho’s lodge. It was supposed to be a day or two drive but is shown in a span of five minutes. This done with the use of lights that transition rather quickly from light to dark which indicates the passage of time. When time is slow the lights stay the same also the scene stays the same for that one scene were as when time is passed rapidly the scenery changes rather quickly. One scene that repeats a significance amount of times is when the psycho stabs his victim. It develops the definition the psycho is in fact a psycho because he rapidly stabs innocent people. It makes people anticipate that whoever the psycho encounter, they will be stabbed to death which doesn’t happen in the end even though everyone thought it will. The film genre I would say is psychological horror and it does fulfill the psychological part with the analysis of the main character and the story would be considered scary even though the movie never really scared me.

In Psycho, the director uses a lot of different tools to create a certain mood throughout the film. He uses lighting and camera angles to portray an eerie and creepy tone. By dimming the light in certain scenes, the audience feels much more on edge due to the limited things they can see on screen. In the shower scene, the lighting is used perfectly as we see Norman’s shadow through the shower curtain. This shadow not only helps the audience see Mrs. Bates’ hair, but also helps foreshadow the scene that’s about to take place. I like how Hitchcock leaves out the gory images in the shower scene because it lets the audience use their imagination. This, in return, creates an even more disgusting image in our head, which is what I think Hitchcock was trying to achieve.

Another tool that Hitchcock uses throughout the film is the reoccurrence of music. This theme always occurs when a death scene is about to happen. Every time we see Norman dressed up as his mother with a knife in hand, an eerie and high-pitched tune plays in the background. This not only tells the audience that another killing is about to take place, but also sets a creepy and crazed tone to the scene.

This film could easily be categorized as a horror film. However, it could also be called a mystery, slasher, and a thriller. In my opinion, the variety in this movie is what makes it so unique and well known. Hitchcock does a great job of combining all of these elements to create a masterpiece of horror.