How Effectively Does Hitchcock Manipulate The Audience In Psycho
Media Coursework: Psycho
How Effectively Does Hitchcock Manipulate the Audience in ‘Psycho’?
The 1960’s movie ’Psycho’, was undoubtedly a groundbreaking and revolutionary film. The movie was produced by Alfred Hitchcock and is often referred to as the ‘mother of the modern horror movie’ as it is the first horror movie that received so much success. Horror films are movies with a purpose to strive to elicit fear, horror and terror responses from viewers. This is why ‘Psycho fits into the Horror Genre as it successfully does these 3 things. Themes of the supernatural colliding with our world are very common in the plots of such films. Otherwise the theme can be completely ‘supernatural’ without any trace whatsoever of reality. Horror movies …show more content…
The devices don’t only help to create suspense; they also help to establish the impressions which we should be making on particular emotions, actions, or thoughts of a Particular Character. The opening scene helps us to establish the character of Marion and focuses our attention upon her. The usage of different camera shots has been applied to create suspense very cleverly by Hitchcock, particularly during Marion’s flee. Our attention is focused on the money, since the psycho has not yet been introduced. The close up of the stolen money helps us to concentrate on it and demonstrates its significance to the events that will follow. The shot then pans to the close up of the suitcase making the departure seem imminent, and makes the viewer feel quite tense, wanting to know what happens next. As she is escaping there are close ups of Marion’s face for long periods of time, this gives us a better view of the changes of emotion on her face such as agitation, confusion and guilt. Seeing the emotion she is feeling also builds up tension, since the viewer wants to know whether or not she will be able to
How Effectively Does Hitchcock Manipulate the Audience in ‘Psycho’?
The 1960’s movie ’Psycho’, was undoubtedly a groundbreaking and revolutionary film. The movie was produced by Alfred Hitchcock and is often referred to as the ‘mother of the modern horror movie’ as it is the first horror movie that received so much success. Horror films are movies with a purpose to strive to elicit fear, horror and terror responses from viewers. This is why ‘Psycho fits into the Horror Genre as it successfully does these 3 things. Themes of the supernatural colliding with our world are very common in the plots of such films. Otherwise the theme can be completely ‘supernatural’ without any trace whatsoever of reality. Horror movies …show more content…
The devices don’t only help to create suspense; they also help to establish the impressions which we should be making on particular emotions, actions, or thoughts of a Particular Character. The opening scene helps us to establish the character of Marion and focuses our attention upon her. The usage of different camera shots has been applied to create suspense very cleverly by Hitchcock, particularly during Marion’s flee. Our attention is focused on the money, since the psycho has not yet been introduced. The close up of the stolen money helps us to concentrate on it and demonstrates its significance to the events that will follow. The shot then pans to the close up of the suitcase making the departure seem imminent, and makes the viewer feel quite tense, wanting to know what happens next. As she is escaping there are close ups of Marion’s face for long periods of time, this gives us a better view of the changes of emotion on her face such as agitation, confusion and guilt. Seeing the emotion she is feeling also builds up tension, since the viewer wants to know whether or not she will be able to