Analysis of Thriller Conventions used in Pyscho

Made in 1960

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

The Plot: A story about a young woman named Marion, who steals $40,000, she leaves the town and encounters a motel proprietor named Norman Bates, who seems to be dominated by his mother.

One of the first notices we get to know that it is of the thriller genre is through the sound. We hear non-diagetic sound w

hich creates a depressed feeling to the atmosphere which also builds a sympathetic view from the audience towar

ds the character, Marion. Marion is pictured sitting alone in a hotel room writing down figures and then she sighs and tears them up. The tearing of the paper could be a foreshadowing tool used by Hitchcock to tell the audience of w

hat is to come.

The room is very bland and shadowed; which mirrors her corrupt personality.

Marion then walks to the bathroom where she

puts the ripped paper down the toilet and then pulls the handle to flush, this could imply that Marion is 'flushing away' her hopes of survival away. She then closes the door to the bathroom, isolating and confining herself into a very claustrophobic space. She takes off her silk dressing gown, which shows elegance and gets into the shower, completely naked. She shuts the shower curtain which makes a loud screechy noise and we can only see the silhouette of her body as she turns on the water- we can only hear the diagetic sound of the water being turned on, which creates realism, which also allows the audience to relate to Marion. The water could suggest her trying to 'wash off' the crimes that she has committed which creates a sense of self-security by making herself feel better, however as an audience we know that she is anything but safe, she is vulnerable because is naked and stuck in a confined space with nowhere to escape but the door.

We then see various close ups of Marion's face, so the audience can depict her emotions. The worms eye shot of the shower makes the water look menacing and overpowering, which connotes danger.

As the shot changes to medium close up, almost high angle of Marion with her back to the curtain, we can see a silhouette creep towards her, getting darker and darker which means it is getting closer and closer, this creates tension and the darkness of the silhouette works well with the black and white making it seem more deathly and evil. We then, as an audience can depict that the silhouette is aggressive and meaning to cause Marion harm. As the figure draws back the curtain we see the contrast between his black silhouette and the white background (the bathroom).

The shots become quick and short, which is used to highlight the brutality of the stabbing/murder this man is committing. In the 1960's the audience watching this would have not been to see many other vicious thrillers such as Psycho so the use of diagetic sound heightens the tension within the scene. The loud, screechy, high pitched tones throughout the diagetic sound resembles that of a scream. After the stabbings, the camera slowly pans out and down to the bottom of the bath tub where the blood from Marion's body runs down into the plug, which shows the severity of his murder.

The thriller conventions used:

• Femme Fatale
• Mysterious Characters
• Crime committing
• Claustrophobic locations