Analysis Of A Thriller Scene

I am going to be analysing the shower scene from Pyscho. 

Why this scene? 

This scene changed thrillers forever it opened a door to onscreen violence. Onscreen violence wasn’t shown in the 60s so when Psycho came out it terrified audiences all over the world. the use of lighting in the shower scene brought a whole new way of having onscreen violence without it being too gory this was the use of silhouettes they light the killer to give him a silhouette so you can tell what is happening but you cannot see it because of the lighting. The 45-second shower scene took over 70 takes to film. 

Analysis:

The scene begins with Marion Crane preparing to send all of the money back that she had stolen from her work. this gives the audience a sense that she has good morals then she goes to get in the shower. As she is relaxing in the shower we see a figure dressed in women's clothing slowly approaching the outline is blurred this gives the audience a sense of suspense as they don’t know the identity of the killer and they can see what is about to happen to her in the shower. The killer whips the shower curtain back and we get a close-up shot of Marion's face to show the terror that she feels. the killer repeatedly stabs her but this was not shown on camera as it was unacceptable for the times of the 60s. Hitchcock hat to be clever with the camera angles and sounds used. Hitchcock used the sound of a watermelon being stabbed along with the iconic blaring music over it. Which were violins cellos and violas. the murder is more chilling because  Marion just proved that she was a good person and had good morals. the scene slows down with the image of the blood going down the drain. it then fades to a close-up of her pupils and then zooms out. The camera slowly pans back to her room.   

Alfred Hitchcock was seen to be one of the revolutionary figures in Horror and Thriller, his use of violence at the time was never seen before and the cinematography considering the era was ahead of its time.