Psycho

Physco is a thriller/horror film, what was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The main stars of the film were Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles.

This film is about a woman who has stole $40,000 and is on the run. She then stays in a motel for a few nights to stay discrete. in this motel there is a man and his unwell mother.  However during a night when shes in the shower, some one enters her room and murders her whilst shes in the shower. As the police are trying to find her, an inspector finds out that she has stayed in a motel. when the inspector gets close, the killer strikes again. As we know we (the audience) think that the killer is the "unwell mother" so for her crimes Norman locks her in the basement. As the inspector has gone missing, the sister of the woman and her partner go to the motel to check whats happened. The sister then look around and finds a skeleton of the mother what has been locked in the basement for years and then the killer who is Norman dressed as the mother goes to kill her but luckily the partner stops him and police are phoned.

Hitchcock's thoughts were that the audience initially think the whole film will be about the missing $40,000 however the murder shocks the audience because it was so unexpected, this then shows that during the rest of the film anything is then unexpected.

The threat in this film is that mad man who is dressed as his mother, However during the film theirs no hero throughout the film. But at the ending, the sisters partners stops the killer from killing again, showing that he saved her.

"Hitchcock has developed the film in such a way that it consistently flouts audience expectations.". During the film there are two major surprises, these are the shower scene and the final revelation about the mother.

Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers are use throughout the film. During the start of the film, towards the build up to the shower scene, there is suspense but not a lot. This is because as we knew, we only know that the woman was on the run with stolen money. But there was no suspense build up towards the first murder. After this scene, theirs a high of suspense though the film as we don't know whats going to happen.  The red herring was that the stolen money distracted the audience from what the film is actually about and surprised us as what we though the main actor being killers at the start of the film. However there is not much of a cliff hanger to the end of the film as Norman Bates is now in prison.

Psycho was initially released in 1960, it was a huge box office hit (there are stories of 3 mile lone lines at drive in entrances.

The shower scene in Psycho is the most popular scene in the film and can be in the whole world. When ever anyone speaks about the film, the first images that appears is Janet Leigh being sliced to death in the shower.

This scene shows that "Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing frequent action".



Mise en scene
In the scene it set in the woman's room in the shower. During the murder, all we see is the knife, fake blood, water, the woman's naked body (with certain parts strategically concealed from the camera), and a brief showing of the blade penetrating the flesh.

Editing 
During the scene, the editing is slow and calm, even when some mysterious person walks into the room the editing is still slow. however when the knife is out and starts to stab the woman, the editing is very fast. This keeps the audience amused and eyes glued to the screen.

Camera angels
During the shower scene, there is steady cam and point of view shot, the point of view shot is what the killer can see and the steady cam shot is of the woman in the shower. However theirs a close up shot on the knife and the blood. This shows us whats happening, because in that time period, nude was not allowed so the scene is so famous for not showing this and to still see the murder he shower. It takes the power of the viewer's imagination to fill in the blanks.

Sound
At the start, we here degetic sound of the shower, that the water is coming. We then hear a non digetic sound of music where the mysterious person walks in. We then have a digetic sound of the shower curtains getting pulled across. Also we hear the digetic sound of the knife and the woman screaming for help, but non-digetic sound of the music during the killing.