Psycho shower scene

Hitchcock - Psycho (Shower scene)

One of the most famous thriller sequences produced by Hitchcock was the Psycho shower scene. The woman in the film acts as a traditional victim in Hitchcock’s films as she is young, pretty and blonde, however these characters tend to develop a criminal and sexual behaviour when danger is near them. The location of the murder takes places in the bath room which creates a sensual scene but at the same time shows a woman when she is most vulnerable. Hitchcock used this type of character in many of his films which may have been a fantasy of his.

At the start of the Psycho shower scene, the first enigma is made. The pieces of ripped up paper she flushes down the toilet leaves the audience anticipating what she is trying to cover up. An enigma is a narrative technique used to draw in the audience’s attention but at the same time creates suspense to leave them wondering what will happen next this technique is very useful for films created within the thriller genre.

The fast editing made up of close ups and medium close ups of her body is used to disorientate the audience how it sets them up with more anticipation and adds to the build-up of tension, in addition, the use of low key lighting sets the scene as looking mysterious and gloomy. The first red herring is introduced when the woman is in bottom right hand corner of the screen and in the top right is the silhouette of someone behind the shower curtain. This alerts the audience that there is something wrong, and at the same time they are given more information than the character herself as she is unaware of the person inside her bathroom however they are left wondering what is going to happen and why.

The red herring is another narrative technique many thriller producers use to keep their audience involved and interested however sometimes the information given to the audience may not always be correct. For example, in this sequence the person stabbing the young women looks like a woman by the hair and figure, however later the audience discover that it was a man dressed up as a woman. When the woman dies, the quick cut of the montage makes the death hit the audience abruptly.

When the stabbing scene takes place the use of pleonastic sound enhances the actions on scene and dramatizes the reaction, however this is used in many thriller films to give extra resonance and more affect to the audience. Throughout the sequence there is no use of dialogue, this allows the audience to concentrate mostly on the actions although at the same time it leaves the audience with time to think about the victims.

Scores are frequently used in many films; thrillers in particular benefit as it can use sound to change the audience’s mood. In the psycho shower scene the sound starts off mellow and calm however when there’s danger it changes into a more upbeat rhythm which changes the tone of the film completely in a few seconds.

Overall, the main conventions used in this sequence were the common female victims to highlight women's vulnerability and the use of dramatic irony being used which was later revealed to be a red herring helps build suspense. The sequence also contains the common theme in thrillers which is psychological crime.