Psycho Image Analysis 2

This photo is from the famous shower scene in the film Psycho. This is the first glimpse we get of the murderer when Marion gets killed. We only see a silhouette of the murder creating a sense of mystery to who the person is, which makes the audience feel intrigued.

 Although it is only a silhouette, the murderer, from looking at the hair looks feminine, due to the outline of the feminine bob haircut. We can slightly see the phallic weapon (knife) which is used to kill Marion in the shower. This scene contains sex and the taboo by Marion being in the shower naked and being stabbed with a phallic symbol. In this scene we have restricted narration which means we don’t actually see Marion get stabbed we just hear the knife going into her.

This scene is famous for its parallel music. It is very dramatic and adds to the shock of the murder. The scene which this photograph is taken from shows of Hitchcock’s mastery of montage, as the scene starts with a slow pace when Marion’s gets in the shower and then quickens as the attack happens.

The lighting used in this image appears to be both low and high key lighting as the light is being overpowered by the presence of the dark silhouette of the murderer. This makes the scene very interesting because the light and dark which is shown in this image connotes both personalities of good and bad.

Overall, this image clearly shows the importance of “auteur theory” (as written about by Andrew Sarris in “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”) because this scene shows the impact of Hitchcock on his films. We can see his “auteur” style through the clever manipulation of lighting and editing. This “auteur” style can also be seen in the bird attack in The Birds (1966), which also uses a quick montage to create panic.