Movie Psycho

Psycho Three scenes from Psycho demonstrate the Master of Suspense's expertise behind the camera. The scene in which Marion pulls up to the Bates Motel in the pouring rain is replete with anxiety and introduces the film's main setting and its characters, namely the Bates Motel and Norman. Lighting and mood are especially poignant in this early scene of the film.

Next, the shower scene is probably the most famous murder scenes in cinema history and demonstrates the importance of both the musical score and editing techniques to conveying mood, theme, and plot. Finally, Arbogast's murder shares many elements in common with the shower scene, such as the music. However, it differs from the earlier scene in terms of pacing as well as camera angles and editing.

Although the audience expects the immanent demise of the private investigator, Hitchcock still manages to imbue this scene with as much thrill and suspense as the shower scene. No music plays as Marion stumbles upon the Bates Motel; the beating of pouring rain offers a percussive alternative to the moody violin music that accompanies many other scenes in Psycho. For the most part, the audience sees what Marion does as she pulls into the hotel: the windshield wipers improve her vision somewhat but the rain is extremely heavy.

Moreover, it is nighttime, and both the weather and the time of day work together to create a haunting mood. As the car pulls into the driveway, the camera cuts between a shot of the neon sign and Marion's hesitant visage. A close up of her face reveals her trepidation even more. When Marion espies the house, the audience is also treated to an ELS of the mansion, which is framed in the sinister storm clouds of the creepy skies.

Norman rushes over from the house with an umbrella after Marion honks her horn. When she and Norman go through the formalities of registering in the office, the lighting is considerably brighter than it was outside. The camera reveals Marion's signature, as she offers a fake name. There is a remarkably brief yet entirely noticeable pause as Norman picks off one of the keys from the board; it is obvious he chooses the room intentionally.

No music accompanies this scene; rather, it is imbued with uncomfortable silence and hesitation on both the part of Marion and Norman. Hitchcock uses some foreshadowing in this scene, as when Norman turns the light on in the bathroom, gesturing to it. When they speak in her cabin, Norman's shadow looms eerily on the wall, suggestive of his shadowy nature. The cabin is unusually bright compared with most other scenes of the Bates Motel.

As Marion hides the money in the newspaper, the violin music starts again, with a somber tone. However, when the haunted-looking house is shown again amid the stormy sky, the music stops so that a voice over of Norman conversing with his mother can be clearly heard. Before Marion enters the shower, soft, suspenseful, and sinister music plays in the background. Norman lifts a painting to reveal a peephole, from which light streams in on Norman's face.

The shot of Marion undressing is framed in a circle, as if we are seeing what Norman sees as he spies. The director cuts to an ECU of a profile of Norman's eye. The violin music continues to play as Norman returns to the house; the lighting is dark and shadowy until the editor cuts to Marion writing in bank ledger. The build-up to the murder is intensified when the music stops, around the time Marion steps into the shower.

Hitchcock includes incredible details like a close-up of the shower head seen from below, with a low angle camera shot and also provides various views of her bathing. When we can see through the curtain, a figure enters the bathroom and the next several minutes of the film fly by. The pacing of the Psycho shower scene is accomplished through the editing, especially elaborately fast cuts.

The feeling conveyed is chaotic, as the camera cuts from stabbing knife to second-long shots of various parts of Marion's body as she struggles against her attacker. Coinciding with the stabbing is high-pitched, shrieking violin sounds that mimic human screams. As the murderer closes in on his pray, the knife becomes clearer and more focused -- and therefore more intense -- than it was toward the beginning of the scene.

Frequently, Hitchcock shows Marion's bare feet in this scene, such as when she enters the shower and before she dies; thus the director offers both extremely low and extremely high angles to intensify the murder even more. Blood and water mingle, running counterclockwise down the drain. The shot lingers there; all the shots are longer than they were during the stabbing scene.

Paralleling the motion of blood and water, an ECU of Marion's dead face spins counterclockwise, panning out gradually to reveal a droplet of water in the corner of her eye that looks like a tear. Arbogast's murder scene employs different editing techniques. As the private investigator examines his surroundings in the Bates mansion, the audience sees both what he sees and his reaction to them, as the scene cuts from his face to.