Final Paper
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,
Psycho is a 1960 American film directed by Alfred Hitchock. The screenplay of the movie written by Joseph Stefano was inspired by the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch on the year 1959. This film is categorized into the horror-thriller genre of film. The starring was Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, Vera Miles as Lila Crane and John Gravin as San Loomis.
Andrew Hitchcock’s classic horror movie Psycho delivers a dynamic storyline between Marion Crane and her encounter with Norman Bates, a seemingly lonely and naive hotel owner. From cinematic elements which enhance the film, Hitchcock creates a suspenseful and entertaining experience because of his attention to details such as the different methods of framing, blocking, and the use of non-digetic sound. Cinematic elements utilized throughout the film enhance specific scenes in the movie, in particularly Marion’s murder in the bathtub. Hitchcock’s stylistic elements of blocking, framing, and use of non-digetic sound together create a dark and mysterious mood and experience to the audience, which suggests that evil stems from darkness and the
Every aspect of The Big Sleep was taken even further with perhaps Alfred Hitchcock’s best film, Psycho. One of the most interesting elements of this film is how the main character and plot completely changes halfway through the film. For the first part of the film, the audience follows Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). Marion is in love with Sam Loomis (John Gavin) and decides to skip town after she steals $40,000 dollars from the company she works for. She eventually arrives at the Bates Motel where she meets Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who runs the motel for his mother. In a twist of events, Marion is killed in a dramatic shower scene, after which the story completely shifts to follow the investigation of Marion’s disappearance, as well as the mystery of Norman and his mother. This is a very experimental way of structuring a film, but worked
Hitchcock uses misery, tragedy, and death to show the emotions of his characters. At no point is this more obvious than the end of the movie. Hitchcock spends the entire movie building up to this point and in the end he makes it extremely clear how tragedy has changed the relationship of everyone. After the nagging husbands murder of his wife has been confessed you see
going back to the other views to see where the policeman is and how is
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller text composed by Steven Spielberg. Jaws tells the story of a Great White Shark terrorizing the small island community of Amity. Now considered one of the greatest shark thrillers ever made, Spielberg has followed in Alfred Hitchcock’s footsteps through using many of his thriller concepts in Jaws. Jaws demonstrates that thriller texts are combined with a variety of different codes and conventions. Whilst trying to create suspense in Jaws, Spielberg was using a strategy used by Alfred Hitchcock. "
In all of Hitchcock’s films he manages to trick the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. He gives you the idea that one thing is going to happen, but something that you completely did not expect happens. This technique surprises the audience and creates suspense throughout the movie. Vertigo was directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.
Hitchcock builds suspense in multiple ways. Especially in this film there is suspense on the plot because weird events keep on happening. At first it sort of builds suspense with Thornhill and the audience on not knowing what is going on with him in the beginning of the film. Why are these people trying to kill him and who is George Kaplan. With the audience not 100 percent sure what is going on in the beginning it sort of leads to the audience too look for what is next.
Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of greatest directors in the film industry. During his 50-year career as a movie director, he helped revolutionized film style and is known for his psychological and suspenseful films. Unlike other directors at the time, he directed his films with a unique take on the human psyche. Hitchcock has a long list of thrilling films under his belt including the popular Psycho, and Vertigo and The Birds. He was awarded two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Awards and five lifetime achievement awards for his films. He was even nominated five times by the Academy Awards for Best Director.
Alfred Hitchcock stated, “The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them” (Brainyquote.com). When Hitchcock was at the height of his career he was deemed the “master of suspense” with his movies “Vertigo”, “Rear Window”, and the most famous “Psycho.” In those movies Alfred’s spooky and suspenseful filming style made the way horror films are today. Alfred Hitchcock was the most influential movie director to the 1960’s because of how he dominated to horror genre. How he evolved the movie industry into what it is today, and the many awards he won.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a standout amongst the most compelling movies in film history. Hitchcock utilizes dialogue, garments and lighting, and also numerous other film strategies to excite the crowd and keep them on the edge of their seats from the starting point of the film to the very end. Hitchcock’s was able to incorporate different sound effects in the movie to create an intense scene of the setting surrounding. The iconic scary scene one have seen recently are common example of Hitchcock's incredible techniques to recount a horrendous story to haunt the audience for quite a while after their involvement with the thrilling motion film.
Alfred Hitchcock was more than a director of movies, he was actually an author as well. If you didn't know “Psycho” was actually a book before a movie. Hitchcock influenced many great authors with his writing. He influenced the great author R. L. Stine creator of Goosebumps to create his movies and books.
He uses birds in almost all of his films. For instance, in Psycho, the film begins in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix being a mythological bird. The owner of the Bates Motel, Norman, is a taxidermist. The backroom of the motel office is filled with birds and a few other creatures.
Scream uses established horror conventions in order to create a sense of suspense and tension for the audience. Sound also plays a large part in horror films, it sets the scene and emphasises the surroundings. In the intro opening title for the movie you hear 4 key sounds, the phone ringing, a woman screaming, a door slamming and the sound of a heart beating, these all make the audience feel uneasy as it throws your straight in to the horror aspect of the film. The audience hears the distinct noise of crickets from the start of the intro scene of the film, emphasising the time of day and that the house is isolated, you continue to hear the crickets throughout the entirety of the opening scene, giving the audience more sense that the killer
The expert of suspence skillfully controls and guides the crowd into relating to the primary character, luckless vicim Marion (a Phoenix land secretary), and after that with that character's killer an insane and tentative taxidermist named Norman. Hitchcock's systems voyeuristically involve the audience with the widespread, dark evil powers and insider facts show in the film. After the killing of the leading actress the investigator is also shown being killed, that means in Hitchcock movie death is shown normally as a part of life, no matter why, what and where. In the same way as other of Hitchcock's movies, Psycho is so extremely layered and complex that various viewings are important to catch every last bit of its