Analysis of Psycho shower scene.

Analysis of ‘Psycho’ shower scene, exploring how film techniques are used to create effects

 In this scene of Psycho we are introduced to a woman in her most vulnerable state, alone and naked in a small bathroom. The audience are not shown a long shot so are not familiar with the setting making them feel intruders themselves, looking at an unfamiliar room with a vulnerable naked woman. There is a long shot of the bath curtain, creating a clear barrier between the woman and the bathroom, which later gets viciously pulled away by her killer.

 Close up shots are used a lot in this scene to show the emotions of the victim during her murder. The use of Close ups also express the claustrophobia that the victim would have felt, being trapped in a confined environment with no escape from her death.

Before her murder there is a cantered angle shot of the victim undressing to get into the shower. The fact that she will have no clothes on shows her vulnerability already, but the cantered angle shot disorientates the audience adding tension and foreshadowing that something abnormal is going to happen to her.

As the murder draws closer the victim is in the middle of the shot, and it gradually pans across to the killer making him now the centre of attention, this is a 3^rd person shot and effects the audience because they feel as if they are actually in the room with her. The use of the water from the shower disguises the killer from both the audience and the victim adding mystery and tension to the scene. The use of Point of view shots from the victim are effective as the camera angle makes is seem as if the knife is pointing directly at the audience, letting them take her character and engrossing them into the scene. As the murder takes place the camera angle changes to be high up expressing the killer’s domination over the victim and again making her seem as vulnerable as possible.

At the end of the murder extreme close ups are used to create a graphic match of  the retina of the victims dying eye with her blood draining down the plug. Extreme close ups are rarely used but are used to emphasise the dramatic moments and creates tension within the scene. The match of the plug hole with the victim’s eye shows the audience the scale of the attack and symbolises that her life has just drained away as quickly as her blood went down the plug. Throughout the extreme close up the shot is revolving, this type of camera work disorientates the audience and keeps them fixed watching the amount of blood mixing with the water and washing away. Using this emphasises the mass of the attack, it also shows the calm that has entered back into the room (through the revolving view of the swirling water) now that the killer has left and leaves the victim at peace.

 Throughout the murder the camera switched to show the thunder storm outside of the hotel, this pathetic fallacy was used to represent the storm that was going on inside the building and inside the killers messed up mind. The editing used between the storm and the murder made the shower water blend with the rain from the storm making the weather mix with the events.

Before the murder took place the editing pace was slow, as if it was relaxing like the audience would expect a shower to be. This made the atmosphere of the scene quite calm so that the murder would impact the audience on a greater scale. The editing pace sped up during the murder; this shows the audience the action, tension and abnormality of how fast situations changed. If the editing during the murder was slow then the impact wouldn't be the same as it wouldn't follow the ferocity or speed of the attack.

 The diegetic sound of the shower remained all the way through the scene, the noise from the shower was so loud that it emphasizes the victim’s lack of awareness that there was a stranger in her bathroom. The editing between the storm and the Murder added non diegetic sounds of thunder, which echoed the trauma that was going on inside the hotel. As the victim’s life drifted away there was a re verb on the water draining, this echoed the fact that she was dying.

This is a point of view shot, from the victim’s point of view. This makes it seem to the audience as if the killer is looking straight at them creating tension and sympathy towards the victim.
The face of the killer is in the middle, meaning it should be the focus in this shot, however the shower water is in focus and has masked the killer behind it adding mystery, as not even the audience can see who the killer is. The costume isn’t extravagant or as if the killer is in any attempt to mask himself so it seems as if there may be some kind of mental illness involved, also the sleeves of the shirt are rolled up giving the impression that the killer means business. The knife is held high showing its dominance and that it is going to cause a lot of harm. The way that this shot is composed, leaving the bathroom setting out and focusing on the knife makes the scene tenser because the audience can’t see the setting that they were introduced. This makes them feel just as trapped as the victim. Also in the composition, the audience can just make out that the bathroom door is now open in the background, showing the entrance of the murderer and that they aren't bothered about closing the door on the murder, they just wanted to walk in and kill.

This is a low angle shot showing that the victim is looking up at the knife is helpless and the knife has domination in this scene. The composition has put the knife in the middle giving it all of the audience’s attention. The way this shot is composed puts the audience in the position of the victim as the only thing they can see is a point of view looking up at the knife, just like the victim herself. This grips them into the action and causes more tension in the scene.



The Notes I made whilst watching this scene before I analysed it: