The 1960s film Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock was groundbreaking and continues to influence film making to this day. The film has been credited as being the foundation for modern day horror films and launching the “slasher” sub-genre. Alfred Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense which definitely proved to be true through all of his movies, especially his most influential film, Psycho, which surprised the audience with shocking bursts of violence and provocative sexual explicitness thus changing cinema forever.
Although it may have not been his best film it became one of his most successful. Psycho was a change in pace for Hitchcock. Movies directed by him usually consist of a wealthy protagonist in an exotic location. Unlike any of his other films, none of the main characters in Psycho were wealthy, of course until Marion Crane stole the forty thousand dollars from her job, but other than that it was very different from his usual work. Another difference in Psycho was that it took place in Phoenix, Arizona and small towns in California like Fairvale, rather than places like Paris or Mount Rushmore shown in Hitchcock’s other films. Even though movies shot in color, which were raved about, were becoming more popular than movies shot in black and white during the time period Psycho was made, Hitchcock went against the rest of the movie making industry and did something very unusual, especially at the stage his career was in.
Although his reasons for shooting in black in white was partly a money issue and majority because he thought the famous shower murder scene would be too graphic if shown in color, it was genius of him to decide to do so. The lack of color set the tone of the movie. Shooting Psycho in black and whi...
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... vastly admired and appreciated to this day as one of the greatest movies made. It is incredible how years later this film still has such an influence on modern day horror films. This timeless classic redefined horror films for generations.
Works Cited
Dolan Roberts. “The Genius of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.” Whatculture.com. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Kevin Carr. “33 Things We Learned From the ‘Psycho’ Commentary.” Filmrejects.com. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Larry Poupard. “Horror Movie Clichés Started by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.” Yahoo.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Mark Kermode. “Psycho: The Best Horror Film of All Time.” Theguardian.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Stephen Robb. “How Psycho Changed Cinema.” BBC news. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Stephen Whitty. “ A Psycho Analysis: Alfred Hitchcock’s Spookiest Movie Brought With it The End of Hollywood Innocence.” NJ.com. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Rebello, Stephen. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. New York: Red Dembner Enterprises Corporation, 1990.
Psycho is a suspense-horror film written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was loosely adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 suspense novel, Psycho. A majority of the movie was filmed in 1960 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Psycho is about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Arizona who steals $40,000 from her employer’s client. She takes that money and drives off to California to meet her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in order to start a new life. After a long drive, she pulls off the main highway and ends up taking refuge at an isolated motel owned and managed by a deranged Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, symbols, character and point of view are three literary aspects used in the film to manipulate the audience’s emotions and to build suspense in the film.
{ Hitchcock never explicitly referred to or mentioned developments of the period or the ongoing political machinations that made daily news; and while he hardly stove to substantiate David Lehman’s claim for the overriding theme in Hitchcock’s America, that “paranoia is sometimes a reasonable response to events in a world of menace” (qtd in Pomerance 12). As pointed out by Marshall Deutelbaum Hitchcock’s films were diligently faithful in their representation of the look and style of American everyday reality and it repeatedly focused on the
‘Psycho’ is a 1960’s thriller that has been voted as one of the top 15
Film Analysis of Psycho When ‘Psycho’ was first screened in New York on 16th June 1960, it was
Alfred Hitchcock’s unique sense of filmmaking and directing has allowed him to become a very famous and well known film maker of his time. He uses similar recurring themes, elements, and techniques in many of his films to engage the viewers in more than just the film, but the meaning and focus behind the story.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Perkins was well known for his roles in romantic comediess. The attractive, shy, well-intentioned young man not only captured the hearts of many teenage girls, but the eye of Alfred Hitchcock when looking for the perfect Norman Bates. Hitchcock’s clever choice of actor immediately threw off the audience and made them ask what is Anthony Perkins doing in a horror film? Perkins' shy personality and slightly awkward movements did him well in his usual genre but did him even better when playing a homicidal schizophrenic. In fact, Perkins' portrayal of Bates made people second guess themselves as to who murdered Marion and Arbogast. This makes the movie significantly more thrilling.
The film Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) is an interesting film with many small details that help shape the film in to award winning masterpiece it is. The mise-en-scène is something that can go overlooked, but is very vital in understanding the meaning of the film. According to the book Film Art, mise-en-scène is all of the elements in front of the camera to be photographed, and because of that, this film technique is one that viewers notice most (p. 112). So this includes things like characters, props, nature and even behavior. Motifs and symbolism are prominent throughout the entire movie. They both help develop the plot either by continuously appearing throughout the film or by having a specific meaning that is a lot deeper than what it looks like on the surface. The mise-en-scène, especially motifs and symbolism, of Psycho plays a huge role in helping convey the meaning of the film.
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.”
In the world of cinema, there’s almost always a discussion regarding what scenes would be suitable for the grasping imagination of any audience, young or old. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Psycho, sparked a plug for the movie industry as it was the first movie of its kind to display such graphic scenes of sex and violence to a worldwide audience.
Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned. (Horror Films)
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.
Frist Alfred Hitchcock, he is the master of suspense. He imposed a new style with his films.
Perhaps no other film changed so drastically Hollywood's perception of the horror film as did PSYCHO. More surprising is the fact that this still unnerving horror classic was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker who never relied upon shock values until this film. Here Hitchcock indulged in nudity, bloodbaths, necrophilia, transvestism, schizophrenia, and a host of other taboos and got away with it, simply because he was Hitchcock.
Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite subject was the superficial placidity of American life, whose clean, bright surfaces disguised the most shockingly moral, political, psychological and sexual aberrations. For Hitchcock, the most striking, funny, and terrifying quality of American life was its confidence in its sheer ordinariness. Beneath the surface, ordinary people and normal life were always ‘bent’ for Hitchcock.