How Does Hitchcock Create Suspense

Films throughout time have combined many different film techniques to create suspense as shown in the film Psycho. Psycho was produced in 1960 and it changed the horror genre in film forever. The film integrated elements of horror that have never been seen before in a film. People heard about the film Psycho when it first came out but the audience did not know a single aspect about the film so the amount of horror was a shock to the audience. Alfred Hitchcock combines lighting, camera angles and score to make his film Psycho more terrifying. The first way that Hitchcock makes his film more terrifying is through the lighting techniques he uses. The film starts off with Marion (the main protagonist) and Sam (boyfriend of Marion) in a hotel

As Marion begins to leave the lighting around the doorway to exit the room is completely dark, as Marion leaves the room she enters into the darkness. This lighting technique will also be foreshadowing, it shows how Marion is entering into the “dark side” which later will show her deciding to steal the money from her boss. She is transitioning from being in the light of the room which shows her sane side to her transitioning to insane, which is her deciding to steal the money. Later in the film when Marion arrives at the Bates motel, she meets Norman (owner of the motel) when she is standing at the front desk signing into the motel. We now see a half-lit side of her face and a half dark side of her face. We can see this through the mirror on the wall, this is once again just reinforcing both the criminal/ dark side of Marion and the pure/light side of Marion. The next time we see the lighting like this is the pond scene after Marion dies. After Norman kills Marion he has to dispose of the body so he puts her in the car and dumps her in the river, just after this the camera moves to point at Norman and we immediately see the half lit side of his face. On Norman's face the light

This is shown greatly during the parlor scene. After Marion arrives at the Bates motel Norman invites her to have dinner with him. He brings Marion to the parlor and the first thing the viewer notices are all of the stuffed birds on the walls. The camera cuts to a low angle and shows an owl in attack position (sitting over Norman), which is symbolizing the “mom” side of Norman ready to kill Marion. Then the camera cuts to a crow which is lurking over Marion. Crows normally represent death, this is foreshadowing for Marion being killed in the next scene. These camera angles give the audience a sense of fear because of all the quick shots between birds and what they represent. Later in the parlor scene the camera cuts to a very low angle under Norman, the audience then sees owl wings that appear to be emerging from Norman. This is to show that Norman is like one of the birds, he is ready to kill and scavenge. The lower camera angles make the film more terrifying because it gives the character who is higher and above the audience more power over us. Lastly in the parlor scene, we hear Norman talking about how he is trapped. The camera then cuts to a low angle and we see all four birds in the corner “trapping” him in. These are to connect the idea of Mother being trapped inside Norman and him not knowing what to do about it. This connection gives a terrifying feel to the scene because