Suspense in Hitchcock's Psycho

Suspense in Hitchcock's Psycho

The film Psycho was produced in the 1960’s by the famous director

Alfred Hitchcock, and was based on the book by Robert Bloch. It was a

groundbreaking film, as it was the first film to have shown a woman in

a bra and slip which was to be censored, and a toilet being flushed,

it was promoted in a number of ways. People were queuing to see this

film “psycho” even when pouring with rain. So they started to promote

the film by giving out umbrellas to them to make them stay. Another,

was when they sent out people, to buy all the books so people couldn’t

find out what happened at the end as it would ruin the film. It was

called the “Mother of the modern horror movie” as it was a new kind of

horror with someone being stalked by a knife. Hitchcock wanted to

manipulate his audience into fear and loitering them by not giving

away anything about the end of the film, so they were in suspense

throughout the whole movie. He did this in black and white instead of

colour as it was cheaper to use.

The title “Psycho” builds up tension and anticipation as it tells the

viewer automatically that the film is about a psycho. The film starts

off, with an everyday situation, when Marion’s at work. So the viewer

feels nothing is going to happen yet. Her boss then enters, handing

her money to bank. As she has the money in her hands, she decides to

run away which makes the viewer think of what’s going to happen next.

She goes home, and starts to pack her bags, leaving the money lying on

her bed. There’s a close-up shot of the money which makes the viewer

focus on the money. As she’s driving the car, the music has started

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...hower.

The most camera shots were used in the shower scene, which added to

the tension.

In its days, psycho was a terrifying film as it is known as the

“Mother of the modern horror films.” This was because it was the first

of its kind.

Today, it makes the viewers tense with anticipation of what’s to come.

The main sources that built the tension was the music soundtrack that

was written by Bernard Herman. Also the different camera angles that

were used throughout the film. Hitchcock also used many different

innovative techniques that were adopted to manipulate his audience. To

add to the sound effects they used water melons and for the high

pitched shrieks they used string instruments like violins. These were

very effective as they added to the tension and suspense throughout

the great horror movie “psycho.”