Film Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

Throughout the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho has revolutionized the horror genre with his ways of merging the obvious with the mysterious. Alfred Hitchcock, ‘Master of Suspense,’ is known for his filming techniques which made his film stand out compared to other horror films during his period. Hitchcock used these techniques throughout the film Psycho to add suspense and give the viewers details on the characters and their surroundings. One of the most important scenes, where Hitchcock used several of his techniques, is the shower scene. The shot-by-shot analysis of the shower scene is characterized by various of camera shots, sound, and lighting.. These techniques give us insights into the surroundings of the scene and adds …show more content…
As the shower scene begins, we see Marion close the shower curtain and turn the shower on. The scene begins with silence and no background music besides the diegetic sound of the shower running which is heard continuously throughout the shower scene. The use of this sound can be for multiple reasons, but it is primarily used to conceal the murderer’s entry. It also adds suspense and tension because we hear no other sounds besides the shower for a constant time giving the viewers a feeling that something not good is going to happen. We see our murderer slowing approaching Marion and then viciously pulling the shower curtains. A displeasing and hard soundtrack can be heard of a combination of violins as Marion is screaming. This soundtrack resembles the pain and suffering she is going through as she is brutally getting murdered which gives the viewer the feeling of being in Marion’s place as they are watching the film. The soundtrack assists in making the scene more horrifying since the pitch of the violins get higher and higher as the murderer is stabbing Marion. The non-diegetic sound of the knife stabbing Marion’s body constantly adds more suspense to the scene and emphasizes the painful wounds. The sound of the knife stabbing gives the viewers more compassion and empathy for Marion. …show more content…
The scene is shot in mostly high key lighting which is often associated with a positive and upbeat mood. This lightening can be used to give the viewers satisfaction that everything is safe and nothing terrible is going to happen. The high key lighting also used to describe her innocent and naive character. The bright white tiles in the shower contributes to high key lighting and support the idea of Marion being innocent. When the viewers believe that everything is going fine especially with the high key lighting supporting that idea, Hitchcock shows them a murder of Marion which is totally unexpected and puts them out of place. As the murderer enters the shower, there is minimum to no lighting on him and around him giving the idea of danger and fear to the scene. This clearly associates the murderer with having evil intentions towards Marion. As the murderer walks out of the scene, the dark lighting follows it out and the scene transitions to high key lighting again where we see Marion left to die. The use of high key lighting is to show the life being strained out of her as we see a following shot of a drain with water flowing through it. The lighting adds suspense to scene since the viewers are put into a state of confusion with high lighting to such a horror scene and didn’t expect such a horrifying murder. It also aids