A film to influence horror films for generations

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2018)

As one of the most iconic film that Alfred Hitchcock made, the 1960 noir film Psycho was a film that revolved around what had happened to the missing Marion Crane. At her job, Marion decided to steal the money of wealthy customer as an attempt to wipe the debt of her lover, Sam Loomis, in order to marry him. By stealing the money, Marion left her town to keep the money eventually going to the Bates motel and meet Norman Bates. With no information on her sister, Lila Crane and Sam looked for Marion, they too encountered the Bates motel. After seeing the corpse of Mrs.Bates, it is revealed that Norman Bates killed Marion; however, the murder was not done by Norman, but by his mother's persona that he adopted when she died.
One of the best component about the movie is the suspense that the movie provided to its audience, which was executed by its film angles, sound track, and composition of the shots. Looking at the first suspenseful moments of the movie, when Marion was leaving town with the money, the angle of the camera switched between her facial expression and the road ahead of. In this segment, the audience can easily tell that the she is worried and panicking about being caught by the law, also by showing the her view we can tell that she is try hard to stay on the road and get further away from her town as she continued to drive in the rain and night. In addition to the camera switching angles between Marion and her perspective, the background music gave the scenes a sense of urgency and was played louder when she was near the police that pulled her over. Making the viewers believe that she was going to be caught.
At the Bates motel when Marion encounters Norman, the suspense that the movie can display shined when the two characters alone at diner. Here, Hitchcock had the camera angled in a way to make it seem like Norman is looking down at Marion and the audience, while he discusses the situation about his mother and what he would like to do. Simultaneously, the composition of the scene and music added to the suspense. As viewers see Norman talk, the taxidermy of animals can be seen in the background hanging ominously. Hitchcock deliberately placed the taxidermy of animals, the stuffing of animals, in the background to emphasize Norman's statement about doing potential harm to his mother and death. By talking about how his mother would become cold and lifeless, viewers are able to imagine his mother being dead; in addition, the taxidermies were used to foreshadow that Norman's mother is already dead. Lastly, the low violin tune played when Norman stated his view on institutions gives viewers the idea that he has a spite towards institution, and would potentially do something to Marion because she mentioned it. All of this made viewers in suspense as they think that Norman may attack Marion.
Even though the examples that I used to mention the suspense that the movie is able to demonstrate well were from the beginning of the movie, it does not decrease the ability that the movie displays. In order for a movie to be successful, the movie's beginning needs to be executed well to capture viewers like how this movie was able to do with its tune of suspense.Hitchcock knew his components of film well because he made this film a huge success; evident by future films, even recent ones, which make reference to this movie, showing the impact that the movie was able to do on cinema as a whole.