scene analysis

 Scene analysis 

shower scene from PSYCHO 

this scene alone is possibly the most iconic thriller scene ever made and the most iconic Hitchcock scene why is this scene one of my favourites? a few reasons really because of how iconic it is the blacked out silouette of the killer as he commits the deed but also because of how unique it was at the time and still is physico opened the door to much more in film it also inspired films such as silence of the lambs and and the Texas chainsaw massicare.    Physico opened the doors to on screen voilence this had never been shown in the 60s so when it was shown it terrified audiences the 45 second shower scene took over 70 plus shots to complete which shows just how hard it was to film then

the analysis 

the scene begins with marion crane preparing to send all of the money she had stolen from her work to be sent back giving the audience a sense that she does have good morals after all as she gets in the shower and relaxes we see a figure in a women's dress slowly aproaching the shower the whole outline of the person is blured giving the audience a sense of suspense because of the hidden identity and because they know what is about to happen the killer rips the curtain open we see a close up shot of marions face to show the sheer terror of the character the killer repeatably stabs her but this is not shown on camera as it was unacceptable in the 60s so Hitchcock had to be clever with the camera angles and sound they used the sound of a water mellon getting stabbed with the iconic music blaring over it which were high pitched voilins cellos and violas the murder is made more chilling as Marion has just cleared her self and proved her morals by planning to return the money making the murder much more chilling and sad the scene then slows down with the image of blood throwing into the drain it slowly fades into her eye pupils and zooms out the camera slowly pans back into her room showing the money tied in the news paper again showing that she was about to do the right thing it then pans outside to Norman screaming 'oh mother !' then he says "blood" at the sight of the killing which we know after watching it he commited