This past week I continued the Alfred Hitchcock trend and watched Psycho. It is regarded as one of the first horror films ever because of the suspense generated from the various lighting strategies, along with the usage of non diegetic sound. To briefly sum up the plot of the film, it first follows a woman named Marion, who steals $40,000 from a client at her office, and is on the run, and her ultimate plan is to meet up with her boyfriend (Sam). While on the run, Marion is incredibly paranoid, leading her to change her car, and eventually stop at Bates Motel. At the motel, Marion meets Norman Bates, a seemingly friendly person, who has deep seeded issues that aren’t yet apparent. Later that night, Marion is in the shower, when an assailant walks in on her and stabs her to death. Though the murderer’s face is somewhat silhouetted, we can assume that it was Norman, though Norman portrays that his mother was the guilty party. Norman then cleans up the evidence, puts the body and money in Marion’s car, and then drives the car into a lake. The rest of the movie is centered around finding Marion and the stolen $40,000. Marion’s sister, Lila, hires a private investigator, who tracks Marion to Bates Motel. After another murder and more snooping, we discover that Norman’s mother had been dead for 10 years, and that the woman we thought we saw was actually Norman wearing a wig. Norman had killed his mother and her lover out of jealousy, and he couldn’t accept it so “mother” became a part of him.
After watching Psycho, I believe that it was more suspenseful than Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Though both movies are indeed suspenseful, I believe the sound usage is what separates the two. In Rear Window, we heard sounds that are normal to hear in an apartment complex, while in Psycho the sounds we heard brought on feelings of anxiety. There were also parts of Psycho where we would hear conversations without seeing the actual people. An example of this is when we see Marion driving and can hear the police officer questioning the used car salesman. This is an intriguing strategy to create suspense because we the audience do not know if the conversation is actually happening or if it is an anxious Marion thinking about what they would say.
I also thought that the characters in this film were more intense than the ones in Rear Window. Norman Bates is a far more suspenseful villain than Mr. Thorwald because we do not initially understand Norman’s motives. One can also make the argument that we will never be able to understand Norman Bates because he is never completely “Norman.” What we can tell about Norman is that he definitely has a severely unhealthy relationship with his mother, who has control over him even after her death. It also should be noted how Hitchcock uses the lighting to show the sinisterness of Norman. In the daylight, Norman seems like a friendly person, who is awkward, but doesn’t seem like he can harm anyone. At night, before turning into his mother persona, it seems that he is more aggressive and hostile.
I also believe that Psycho was more suspenseful than Rear Window because of the different perspective on Voyeurism. In Rear Window, Jeffries seems harmless when peering into other people’s apartments. In many ways, it almost feels justified for him to do so because he thought Thorwald murdered his wife. That belief alone makes the audience forget about him peering in on the other residents. When watching Psycho though, the audience can immediately tell that Norman peeping on Marion getting undressed is wrong. She seems so much more vulnerable for whatever reason, and it feels so much more uncomfortable. This could also be due to the fact that whenever we take showers we are at are most vulnerable, and I think it is interesting how this is shown.
All in all I really enjoyed watching Psycho. In a lot of ways it was similar to Rear Window, but the sounds and lighting used made me feel more suspense when watching. I also thought the Norman Bates character was genius. I think Hitchcock is showing us how our experiences and role models can have such a profound affect on our lives, and how ambiguous love can be. Even though Norman was a sick person, I don’t know if I would consider him evil. As sick as he is, I think the argument can be made that he does everything out of love for his mother, and believes he’s protecting her. Whatever the case may be, it is certainly a fascinating display of the human condition and something to think about when looking at our own lives.
Tom's Thoughts 