Psycho Analysis

Psycho Analysis
In the thriller film psycho there is a well known scene involving the murder of a young woman in the shower by a mysterious killer. The scene has many aspects which make it an obvious thriller genre, including camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and lighting.

One of the first shots in the scene is of the female character standing in the shower with the curtain in the background. The character is a young woman, who is made to appear vulnerable as she is naked and exposed in the shower. Her appearance also makes her appear vulnerable as she is very petite and innocent looking, this is a stereotypical victim in a thriller/horror, therefore it tells the audience that something bad may be about to happen to this person. In the shot the girl is on the far right of the screen, creating a golden mean. This puts the other main focus of the shot of go on the curtain behind and makes the audience question what mysterious thing may be behind it. There is a faint dark shadow shown behind the curtain, implying that a killer of some sort is approaching the girl. As the girl has her back turned, this makes her appear naive as she is unaware of what is about to happen and the audience know first. The curtain is also partially translucent, this adds to the mystery of the killer as it hides their face.

The next shot in the scene is a close up of the killer from the victims point of view as the curtain is pulled away. The shot is composed so that the killers face cannot be seen an a sense of mystery of who the killer is is created. The face is mainly hidden by the lighting as the killer is lit from behind and the face is completely blacked out .The only light on the killer is reflected on the knife in the killers hand. This use of lighting puts the focus on to the knife and the way it is being held (aggressively). Water is another prop used to disguise the face of the killer. The water from the shower is running in front of the killers face and has been put out of focus to blur the face even more.

When the girl sees the killer the shot moves very quickly to an extreme close up of the victims mouth. This shot is very dramatic as it shows the reaction of the girl in direct and eye-catching way. The sound is also a key part of this shot as there is a very loud deafening scream, this is put on the shot afterwards as it has been pre recorded and made louder and sharper. The other editing in this shot is a zoom effect, it is a very disjointed zoom to show the chaos in the shot and to focus our attention on the scream even more and the overall fear that the victim is feeling. The shot is intentionally very close up to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic.

During the attack a birds-eye view shot of the action is used to show the murder as a whole. There is a golden mean focusing on the killer and the victim and the shot is at a canted angle to show the madness of the killer. Through out the entire scene the killers identity is hidden, in this shot the birds eye view tells us that the killer is possible a woman however her face is still covered by the shower rail to maintain her mystery. This shot also helps to show the helplessness of the victim as she appears to be falling and is struggling to hold the killers knife back.

One of the end scenes is a birds eye point of view shot. At this point it is clear that the victim is dead as the blood and water draining down the plug hole represent the victims life draining away. This shot is also edited to spiral around the plug as it fades into an image of the victims eye also spiralling, this strengthens the connection between her life draining and the water draining away.

At the being of the scene the bathroom was seen to be a private and safe place where the victim was in comfortable surroundings. This feeling of a transition of safety into dangerous is an effective way of making the thriller seem scary. The bathroom also began the scene with white clean walls which also represented the victims innocence and purity. This was taken from her by the end of the scene and the bathroom was left dirty and poisoned. Throughout the scene the girls face was lit brightly to show her innocence and possibly how exposed she was. One of the main features which made the scene build tension and action was the pace of the editing. It began slowly and sped up very quickly as soon as the victim saw the killer. This fast pace editing made the action seem more aggressive and violent. It also allowed from lots of short shot of close ups to add an uncomfortable feeling. As the girl died the editing pace slowed and this represented her life slowing.