Suspense In Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

419 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: importance of music in a film

The shocking twisted ending in film Psycho (1960) was a most successful Hitchcock’s mystery. Owing to such unexpected finish, the film made a powerful impact on the audience. The whole movie was a build up of suspense with mystery resolution. The suspense is often weakened by the fact that the plot is not clear enough to the public. In the case of Psycho, all the details were shown to the audience, some shots even were played twice to achieve better understanding. A spectator was aware of the danger but not prepared for such resolution. “Don’t give away the ending, it is the only one we have!” was the slogan of the movie. (Robb, 2010) Everything was planned to penetrate the emotion of the audience. Music was a significant element in penetrating emotion. “Hitchcock himself admitted that at least a third of the movie's impact depended on the music”. (Nixon, n.d.) “The violins wailing away during Psycho's shower murder scene have achieved the status of cultural shorthand - denoting imminent violent insanity” (Robb, 2010) Hitchcock not only developed mystery and suspense in the movie, he also …show more content…

In suspense moments the viewer gets involved in what is happening on the screen, he feels as a direct participant in the events that unfold in the film. The most important thing is the ability of the director to suspense and mystery. Hitchcock had the ability to involve the viewer in a movie. The verdict of the three movies Sabotage, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Psycho is Alfred Hitchcock designed everything to achieve what he believe was the important distinction “mystery” vs. “suspense”. He has done it with great attention to the applicable musical accompaniment, delivery of information to the audience, and penetration of

Show More
Related

  • Alfred Hitchcock Manipulates the Audience to Build Suspense in Psycho

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...en in the form of black and white. The movie was able to hold on to my gaze through all the suspense. I enjoyed the score composed by Bernard Herrmann in the film because it would hint at something that might happen and I felt myself tense up whenever the music came on. The characters were relatable and incidences that occurred in the film were realistic, which made the movie more comprehendible. I would warn people about how mind-boggling the film gets after the shower scene because everything afterwards becomes very fast paced. I feel the viewer would need time to think about the film and pausing is a must in order to fully understand what is going on. I would recommend this film to suspense lovers especially because Psycho is one of Hitchcock’s greatest works of art. I am glad I chose this movie to watch because the movie was well sorted out and very engaging.

    Read More

  • The Alfred Hitchcock Signature in his Films, Shadow of a Doubt and Vertigo

    382 Words  | 1 Pages

    One major attribute in Hitchcock films is how creatively Hitchcock tricks the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. Many people argue that it is a tactic by Hitchcock to surprise his audience in order to increase the suspense of the movie. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, the audience assumes that young Charlie is an innocent young girl who loves her uncle dearly. However as the movie progresses, Young Charlie is not as innocent as the audience suspects. Young Charlie, once a guiltless child, ends up killing her evil uncle. In Vertigo, the same Hitchcock trickery takes place. In the beginning, the audience has the impression that the Blond women is possessed by another woman who is trying to kill her. The audience also has the notion that the detective is a happy man who will solve the murder case correctly. Just before the movie ends, the audience realizes that the detective was specifically hired by a man to kill his wife. The detective, in the end, seems to be the hopeless, sad victim.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Madness In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock is known for his masters of works in the film industry. The film he is most famous for is Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock`s Psycho was critically acclaimed not only in the horror genre but within the entire film scene. It encompasses several key themes, which are portrayed through cinematic devices such as camera movement and sound, sound, lighting and costume and set design. The subject of madness becomes increasingly evident as the film progresses, centering on the peculiar character that is Norman Bates.

    Read More

  • Vertigo

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a thrilling film filled with mystery and suspense. However, Hitchcock left many unsolved issues at the end of this film. In contrast, when comparing Vertigo to more recent films of similar genre’, mysteries are usually always solved and thoroughly explained by the end of the film. Ironically, Hitchcock’s failure to explain everything to the audience in Vertigo is one of the film’s best attributes. This lack of knowledge allows the viewer to use their own imagination and speculate as to what might or might not have become of certain characters.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Three Key Poisoning Scenes

    1878 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...he chessboard. In this poisoning scene, the audience’s psychological changes are strongly tied to the elements that constituted by Hitchcock. As a master of suspense, he puts the audience in an extreme intense condition through the whole scene, but not the audience only get shock in one particular moment. When the Mrs. Sebastian says the plan should practice without anyone’s suspicious. In fact, the audience is the one who actually suspicious the most in the game of Hitchcock. The reason why we are the one in most suspense can explain by the audience could anticipate the answer before hand, but the character in the scene does not know it. The process is a “torture” to some audiences, because it is similar to the theory that a prisoner might be executed just in five seconds, but the process of waiting for the execution maybe five minutes, five days or five years.

    Read More

  • Suspense and Tension in Hitchcock's 1960's Film Psycho

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    them focus on the money, as it is a large amount and is cash it helps

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a film which functions on multiple levels simultaneously. On a literal level it is a mystery-suspense story of a man hoodwinked into acting as an accomplice in a murder, his discovery of the hoax, and the unraveling of the threads of the murder plot. On a psychological level the film traces the twisted, circuitous routes of a psyche burdened down with guilt, desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy. Finally, on an allegorical or figurative level, it is a retelling of the immemorial tale of a man who has lost his love to death and in hope of redeeming her descends into the underworld.

    Read More

  • Peeping Tom Film Analysis

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    Moving on too Psycho, Hitchcock both produced and directed the movie, so he had “ a great deal of involvement in the actual planning and filming of Phsyco. His originality in this area constibuted greatly to the unique nature of the film” . Hitchcock successfully made the audience feel like they were “right inside the situation instead of leaving the to watch it from outside, from a distance”. As a director he broke the actions into details “ cutting from one to the other, so that each detail is forced in turn on the attention of the audience and reveals its psychological meaning.”

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock's Creation of Tension and Suspense in Psycho

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    with his line of vision. He rushes out the door. AS he does so the

    Read More

  • Hitchcock Suspense Analysis

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    He often uses the analogy of a bomb. He says that if a bomb goes off out of nowhere the bomb the audience are only surprised for ten seconds. he says you have to show the bomb to create suspense. He says you show the bomb under a table and show people talking. Hitchcock says this gives the audience suspense because they are so focused on the bomb going off. You have to show the audience what is going to happen to the characters. This is how you can create suspense. He says it is important to keep things simple for the audience. He says that they should know who is and what is what. You can use distinctive clothes to distinguish each character. He also says it is important to let the people know where everything is. For example you should let the audience know where the documents are hidden. Having things clear makes the audience more engaged and keeps them focused on the

    Read More

  • Rear Window And Psycho Theme Analysis

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock’s films not only permanently scar the brains of his viewers but also addict them to his suspense. Hitchcock’s films lure you in like a trap, he tells the audience what the characters don’t know and tortures them with the anticipation of what’s going to happen.

    Read More

  • Duality In Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the use of irony, mis en scene and recurring symbols, Hitchcock has reinforced the fundamental idea of duality throughout his film, Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960’s American psychological horror thriller, was one of the most awarded films of its time, proposing contrasting connections between characters, Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, and cinematic/film techniques to develop this idea. Irony identifies contrasts between the dual personalities of Marion Crane and Norman Bates, often foreshadowing the future events of the film. Mis en scene is particularly influential to enforcing the idea of duality, evidently shown through the music and diegetic sounds used. The recurring symbols including the mirrors and specifically the birds, underpin a representation of the character’s dual personalities. Hitchcock’s use of devices reinforces the dual personalities of characters Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.

    Read More

  • Feminism In The Film 'Rear Window' By Alfred William Hitchcock

    2403 Words  | 5 Pages

    Alfred William Hitchcock, the ‘master of suspense’ was a talented and remarkable director.Hitchocks extended family was known to be a jolly group specifially his parents he acquired an interest and fondness for the theater. Three years after his strict fathers death, Hitchcock began to path his own future in the film Industry. After attending the at Goldsmiths college, London university, allowed him to start from the adverstisment department to writing and drawing titles cards for film and then to designing sets.

    Read More

  • Suspense In The Film 'North By Northwest' By Alfred Hitchcock

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hitchcock’s techniques in North by Northwest to create suspense is unquestionable, because we have seen some of the elements of the mise en scene and camera shots he used to keep the audience guessing throughout the film. The film is “the wittiest, most sophisticated thriller ever made” (Ehrenstein par1). The film have “extraordinary technical skill or martini-dry sense of fun” (Ehrenstein par2), therefore, it is clear that North by Northwest is one of the most suspenseful movies of all

    Read More

  • Suspense And Film Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Film

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Besides Hitchcock’s amazing ability in creating suspense the film is full of his unique and recognizable touch. At the very start of the film, he appears in a cameo as a bystander who arrives a second too late to catch the bus. Hitchcock is famous for always making at least one cameo in all of his films, and it is said that at the height of his career he had to place his cameo at the beginning of the film or the audience would spend the rest of the film looking for him. (Truffaut, F., Hitchcock, A., & Scott, H. G. (1967). Hitchcock). Eva’s character also perfectly fits Hitchcock’s criteria: blond, beautiful and in distress. The director is also famous for the morbidity with which he directed his female leads. She was instructed by Hitchcock

    Read More

More about Suspense In Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

Open Document