Widely regarded by most of the civilized world as Alfred Hitchcock’s most iconic film, Psycho, from opening titles to final shot, is a thrilling ride full of twists and turns that keep the viewer on the edge of their seat.
The opening itself sets the perfect tone for the film. In the opening titles, lines moving across the screen, breaking, jumping about, matching the tone and rapid pace of the bouncing strings of the music all work together in harmony to make the viewer feel on edge. It immediately takes the viewer out of their present reality and drops them into the one Hitchcock has created. The date and time that follow serve to further set the scene, but in a less emotional way. They provide the audience practical information for where the characters start without having them say it. Moreover, it gives a sense for how little time it takes for Marion Crane’s life to spiral out of control. Later, when Marion checks into the Bates Motel, the audience is shown that the last visitor was in April, which should be a huge red flag. But before Hitchcock shows any characters, gives any sense of where the film is going, the audience already knows what sort of film they are in for.
Not only does Hitchcock keep the promise he’s made, but in doing so he employs many techniques to achieve it. For starters, he uses a completely plot-pointless Macguffin. The police officer in the beginning that follows Marion has nothing to do with the main plot of the story, but Hitchcock lets the audience believe it does to get the main character moving and to put the audience on edge. The eyeless, creeping officer terrifies the main character and so terrifies everyone watching. Another technique is an almost too obvious one: the use of black and white (by which the author really means light and dark, but in a black and white film, it’s easier to use those terms). In the opening, Marion is shown in white; her underwear is white, her dress is white, even her purse is white. She is pure. But once she steals the money, her underwear, dress, and car are all black--she has been tainted. She tries to erase what she’s done by trading in her black car for a white one and even trying to shower it away once she’s at the Bates Motel. Note that the bathroom is totally white until she is murdered and then Norman Bates tries to get rid of the black stains on the blood similar to what Marion tried to do by getting rid of her black car in favor of a white one. Given that neither one of them ever stopped wearing black, it is obvious that it doesn’t work. Norman originally appears in a white Oxford with a dark jacket, but after the two murders he is seen in a black turtleneck as if the darkness is consuming him. This motif shows up throughout the whole film. The PI he kills arrives in a white car. The swamp that Norman disposes the bodies in is black. It’s an obvious thing, especially that last one, but it’s a simple and power thing to play to the audience’s preconception linking black to evil and white to good.
Another technique he uses is also an obvious to use: camera angles. Hitchcock doesn’t use them by themselves. They are usually used in conjuncture with music, sound, lighting, or a combination of the three. Take the shower scene for instance: Marion is in a white, well-lit shower, the last place, visually and thematically, to murder someone. Cue the dark shadow approaching her, the dissonant, harsh strings, and the “70 shots” (Hodgkinson, “Secrets of the Psycho shower”) and you have one of the most iconic moments in all of cinema. While the lighting is important and while the scene arguably wouldn’t have worked without the music, it’s the seventy shots that are key. He uses mostly close shots to bring the audience into the moment with Marion and to experience each blow as she does. It makes for a violent and almost violating scene. Before that, however, when Marion and Norman meet, the camera work is key in the Parlor scene. The camera inches closer and closer to the characters as they talk and once Hitchcock really starts to establish how “off” Norman is the angle on him shifts. The camera is below him as the light casts really noticeable shadows on his face. It’s very creepy and gives the viewer a sense of the madness lurking just beneath Norman’s calm exterior. Hitchcock noticeably uses the camera whenever the murders are taking place. Not until the very end is the murderer’s face shown and since we only see a figure in a dress with a bun, we assume it’s the crazy mother. Hitchcock shows so much with the murders that the audience doesn’t think about what he doesn’t show--the face. He manipulates the audience with the camera angles so that when he shows that the murderer is in fact Norman Bates it comes as a chilling surprise.
Even the final shot of the film is effective and ties everything together. The white car being raised out of the black swamp, covered in who knows what is a necessary closure for the audience. It’s the reversal that the viewer needs, to see white dirtied up by black, but still leaving the blackness behind much like the characters are. They will never fully recover, fully get all of the black of the murders off of them, but at least they are out of the swamp and there is closure.
Literally, from opening titles to final shot, the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, use a number of technical and artistic techniques to pluck the audience out of their normal everyday lives and drop them into an experience of pure terror.
Hodgkinson, WIll. "Secrets of the Psycho shower." The Guardian: n. pag. Web. 29 Aug. 2012.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/29/psycho-body-double-marli-renfro>.
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