Review Of The Techniques Used In Alfed Hitchcock’s Psycho
Hitchcock once again demonstrated his phenomenal work in the 1960’s film Psycho, a horror/thriller film that depicts multiple personality disorder through his main character Norman, who Anthony Perkins plays. While he focuses on his protagonist through the first half Marion – played by Janet Leigh – who is cleverly cut off half-way through the film creating the most unexpected twist. He demonstrates how things are not always what they may seem to be. A timeless classic that broke taboos, marking its place in cinematic history. Everything Hitchcock used and placed in the movie was thoroughly thought of from the smallest angle to the overall shot to create the film that would be analyzed and remembered time after time. He creates the significance of false identities and duplicity or distorted realities throughout the entire film starting with the usage of mirrors.
In very earlier scenes the mirror reflections establish the guilty conscious of Marion. We see how when she is in her room that we first encounter a mirror shot of herself willingly looking at herself. Demonstrating the conflicting moral sides to herself deciding whether to take the money and run, or to go as she was supposing and deposit it into the bank for her boss. She walks away from her self-image in the mirror symbolically implicating she has made the choice to run and take the money. From then on we see how she cannot handle the reflection of herself as it reminds her of her guilty consciousness and repressing the reality she is living and distorting her views. However, it is in the Bates hotel where she goes in to sign the registry of the hotel to get a room, when we see a mirror is hanged alongside Marion to capture the side of her that is being shown and now being displayed. While the other half is being trapped and suppressed. Her conscious is hidden away or unseen and the side of her that is lying is reflected. Creating not only the notion of her split self, but also insinuating that we as the audience all have different degrees of being good and bad within ourselves and so do others.
We also see how Hitchcock does the same for other characters. We continue with Norman –the antagonist- who Hitchcock also emphasizes his dual personality. Hitchcock uses the mirrors seen throughout the film to dive deeper into the psychological aspect the film focusing as well on all the suspense that the audience feels and is created with the usage of the mirrors. Along with his usage of the mirrors he continues by using amazing sound strategy and choosing strong music scores to emphasize the psychotic theme and make the film even greater. The best demonstration of this is when we see Marion showering in the motel bathroom. It begins quietly and you only hear the water running down into the drain as Marion showers. As soon as “Mother” rips the curtain shrieking violins are heard accompanied with each knife slicing through Marion’s flesh. Leaving Marion’s blood to pour into the shower drain as she literally “drops dead”.
As Hitchcock begins with no music the only thing you hear is the water pouring upon her. The purity of the silence while Marion showers shows the “cleansing” she is taking of the bad she has done. He leaves the audience vulnerable to what might happen and unsuspectably waiting for her to finish her shower, Hitchcock cleverly doesn’t make a sound until the actual murder is taking place. Hitchcock used the silence to intensify the effect it would have as the murder was taking place. The violins piercing sound even goes as far as mimicking a bird’s call which we can link to Norman’s hobby, taxidermy. The strings abrasive and cold sounds produce a heighted sense of being horrified as you watch the murder take place on screen wanting it to end. Hitchcock even considered making the film score-less, something difficult to imagine now as the iconic sound has become a staple in horror films even to this day.
Equally important, Hitchcock uses voyeurism to demonstrate the parallel between Marion and Norman and draw us in closer. We see this throughout the entire film, starting from the very beginning with the opening scene. Opening with the camera giving the audience a wide general angle of Phoenix, Arizona. Swooping down to the window where Marion is half-undressed from just having laid with Sam, we are the ones watching her. She is presented as something to lust for, degrading her enough as an object. We also see this when Norman has finished conversing and having a so called “dinner” with Marion in the motel. Right after Marion says her goodnights and leaves to her room, Norman takes off a frame hanging from the wall and peeps through the hole to stare at Marion. As Norman is looking at Marion, Hitchcock suggest that we are also the ones lusting after Marion as we are Norman’s eyes. Desiring her without the knowledge that she is being watched. However, we are guilty first of this desire as we are the audience. That same desire leads to Norman wanting to wipe out that same guilt of wanting her leading to the next iconic scene.
The act of voyeurism is just one of many other techniques that Hitchcock used to master this film into a masterpiece of his own and us. While the Arizonian secretary running away from haven stole 40, 000 grand to free her lover from an imprisonment of alimony may not seem that much a an attention grabber, it is the techniques Hitchcock used to make this film with every little single detail that has left it as an iconic film. From the usage of the mirrors, music score, and voyeurism there are still so many other details that can be elaborated on. It is undoubtedly a film that will continually be used to be analyzed time after time as a film that changed the industry and standards for horror films.
