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How Does Hitchcock Create Suspense In Psycho

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Alfred Hitchcock was a renowned film director known for his elements of suspense and psychological thrillers. His most popular work Psycho is adapted from a novel of the same name written by Robert Bloch. The story of a phoenix secretary (Marion Crane) who embezzled money from a client is used to unveil the psycho in the male character (Norman Bates). The success of the film is greatly relied on Hitchcock’s unique techniques in creating tension and suspense. Elements that contributed to the success of the film include motifs, and narrative perspective used.
The most prominent motifs in psycho are birds, eyes and mirrors. Hitchcock uses birds to support the theme of duality in the film. In one critical scene where Norman offered Marion dinner in his parlor, the setting creates awkward strangeness that emits from the stuffed birds that can be seen in the room. The only source of light in the room was a lamp positioned near Marion, and is the only key light in the scene. This, however produces a soft and bright image for Marion, but since Norman is placed a little further from the light, shadows of himself and some other objects near him could be seen on the wall behind him. Since Norman is placed in the darker side of the room, it indicates that he has a dark side to the shy one that is being introduced in the scene. This is later confirmed in the same scene when Marion suggested to Norman to put his mother in an institution. He got mad, showing his darker side,

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