The camera spirals out from Marion’s eye and a tracking shot moves out of the bathroom over to the money. The camera then reframes again to look out of the window to the Bates house. Off screen Norman is heard shouting to mother. Then you see him running towards the motel room. The camera now follows Norman and we watch him wash away all traces of murder. The dual narrative of Psycho was also incredibly shocking as the comtenpary audience, used to a Classic Hollywood Narrative, would have expected to follow the protagonist, Marion until the end of the film.
At this point the audience’s sympathies lie with Norman. He is a dutiful son trying to help his psychotic mother. When the beams of a car’s head light passes over his face it makes us feel concerned. Also when he drives Marion’s car into the tar pit and it stops sinking, he looks around nervously. When it finally does disappear we feel relieved for him. Psycho amounted to three blood-chilling moments, the shower scene (which I have concentrated on), the attack on the landing and the mummified corpses in the basement all of which was held together by not very much.
This allowed Hitchcock to underline the astonishing impact these scenes would have on the cinema audience. Psycho, which Hitchcock once described as “my first horror film” is in fact a supinely structured thriller, and it’s a pretty heartless one at that, for it was made when the directors appeared to have abandoned a warmth for a macabre fascination with the darker aspects of evil. This had never been attempted on screen, which was why Hitchcock sent out directions to the cinema manager allowing for a new cinematic experience to be had by the audience.
From its quiet opening (Janet Leigh embezzling her employers money and leaving town) to its shocking climax, it is most artfully put together. Hitchcock cheats outrageously allowing to lead the audience towards sinister expectations that are not fulfilled, nor was they’re any intentions that there should be. False trails abound; car number plates are given a significance that they never deserve. All this was simply the master toying with his audience, playing them along, deluding them, misdirecting them, confident in the knowledge that when the big moments came they would frighten the life out of everyone in the cinema.
Due to Psycho, audiences no longer wanted or expected to go to the cinema to watch story, plot, dialogue they went for a cinematic experience Psycho is regarded as a masterpiece in the history of cinema and there is no shock horror movie which is more compulsively watch able. It is outrageously manipulative, its subject matter is essentially banal and yet it is not too much to describe it as the work of a genius. The doors Psycho opened for directors have moved the film industry on more than any other film in history especially in the realms of horror movies.
