Alfred Hitchcock has been called ‘the Master of Suspense’, considering ‘psycho’ state how effectively he achieves the element of suspense in this film

Alfred Hitchcock has been called the Master of Suspense, considering psycho republic how effectively he achieves the element of disbelief in this hire. The film Pycho is sleep withn for its suspense. The dictionary definition of suspense is the anxious un realty the sense of hearing feels while waiting for an event. Its an attraction/repulsion response, or that oooooh errrrr feeling I personally withdraw that suspense is the feeling of not knowing whats ab forbidden to happen, feeling unsure of how to react to the next thing that happens.It puts you in to a state uncertainty or excitement, like you ar waiting for a decision. It makes you feel a degree of apprehension or anxiety. Alfred Hitchcock was brought up in a unrelenting Roman Catholic environment. He always knew exactly what was right and what was wrong and was aw be of other peoples wrong doings. This comes across in the film. Marion was the first woman to be murdered and she was also the first person to be seen as i mmoral, she was seen in white underwear in the first scene as she was in cognize with a man she was having an affair with.This sees her flaunting her sexuality. She was also seen flushing the toilet just before she was murdered. This is another thing that Hitchcock was brought up to think was immoral also Hitchcock was a misogynist. This readiness explain why he killed off the main female character in the film. Work played a huge part in Hitchcocks life, he was a workaholic infact. People would describe Hitchcock as obsessive with his films because he would devote his life to and take so much pride in them. Psycho was released in 1960.The morals and attitudes of people were a lot different in 1960 to what they argon now. There were far more of the population who attended church and would call themselves christian. to a fault at that place was a much surer sense of definite rights and wrongs moral and immoral behaviour was much more clearly defined. In the film this comes through clearly. In 1960, men were thought to be superior to woman they certainly occupied the lavishlyer status in their occupations. Marion is at work and the man who has come in to speak with her boss is talking to her.He looks old and arrogant. He is boasting roughly how rich he is, telling Marion about how he is buying a house for his daughter. He is trying to chat up Marion but she ignores him. He sits on her desk so that he is at a higher train than her to show that he is more important. Marion is seen in her underwear. This was a very r atomic number 18 thing to see in any film in 1960. Before she stole the bullion she was seen in white underwear which is shocking enough. After she has stolen the property, she is seen again in her underwear but this time it is sullen.White is seen as a pure wring so this is why she was wearing white before she stole the money where as black is not pure, a dirty colour, this is why she was wearing black after she had stolen the money, to symb olise that she has become immoral. The audience can now expect close tothing bad to happen. Just before Marion steps into the shower down were she gets murdered she flushes a sound out consume the toilet. Films would neer show a toilet being flushed in 1960. It was looked up on as an immoral thing to be seen. Now, in 2003, seeing someone flush a toilet on a film is completely normal.The film starts with a shot of Marion and surface-to-air missile (her secret boyfriend) in bed. They talk about running away and getting married. Marion goes into work that day as if everything is normal. She sits down at her desk when her boss walks in with a man. The man sits down on her desk and starts telling Marion about the $40000 he has in cash to buy a house and he gives Marion the $40000 to put in the bank but Marion steals the money so that she can get married. She drives to a motel the Bates Motel, and gets herself a room.She spends sometime talking with Norman Bates, the owner, and whe refore goes to her room for a shower but as she has a shower someone murders her. Norman then takes Marions body and puts it in a river. Marions sis, Lila, realises she is missing and asks Sam if he knows where she is, he doesnt. Arbogast is a detective who trys to find Marion so he goes to the motel to see if she is there but Norman says that he doesnt remember her. Arbogast still suspects something so he goes to Normans house however as he goes up the stairs, he also gets murdered.Sam and Lila realise that Arbogast hasnt returned so Sam goes to the motel to look for him but he cant find him so then Sam and Lila go behind to the motel. Marions sister goes into the house to look for Normans mother as Sam and Lila think that she knows something. Lila goes down to the cellar and finds a skeleton of Normans mother just as Norman comes in to the cellar dressed as his mother with a knife to kill Lila but Sam stops him. Normans mother was dead but he believed she was still alive, for ex ample, he would pretend to be her and it was Norman being his mother who had murdered Arbogast and Marion.This is a horror/thriller film. It focuses on an individual who is mentally ill and it explores some of the possible consiqueses of mental illness. This is one of the most successful of Hitchcock films. This could be due to the amount of suspense in it. Hitchcock has used very successful techniques of creating suspense. There are many scenes in Psycho that are tense for example the shower scene where editing was used in a bold and sharp way. The shower scene, in which Marion was brutally murdered, was a huge hit with its audiences.This is because is was so suspenseful. The quick cuts the entire stabbing lasted only twenty seconds, the sound effects you could hear the boisterous of the flesh as the knife broke the skin but you never actually saw the knife cut the skin, the symphony all strings, very high pitched, the sort of music that makes you cringe and know that somethi ng big is about to happen, all created a great amount of suspense. When Marion is in the shower we see the door of the tub open, but Marion doesnt. Seeing this makes us pay attention, at this point the suspense starts.Then the music starts and we see the knife. At this point we are almost certain that she is going to be murdered. Then the murderer pulls back the curtain and Marion screams. In my opinion, this is the most suspenseful point in the murder. As she is being stabbed, there are alternate shots of Marion and the knife and the music is very loud and fast. When the murderer has gone, everything ho-hums down as Marion slides down the wall and falls to the ground. There is a close up on the blood going down the plug hole after the television camera has very slowly zoomed in on it.There is then a close up on Marions eye, as she lies dead on the ground, and the music is very low and slow and then all the action is over and the level of suspense suddenly drops. This plays with the mood of the audience, it takes them from a state of tension or anticipation, building up to the point were the murder is commited and then giving the audience a kind of release. The music plays a big part in creating suspense. The music used in Psycho is very sinister, high pitched and high stride. The music not only creates suspense, it adds a certain amount of tension.As the camera focuses on different things, the music tempo and pitch changed to build suspense, for example, as the camera pans across the room with the money in it the music is a medium tempo but as the camera zooms in on the money the tempo of the music shoots up. This draws your attention to the money. Another of the most suspenseful scenes in Psycho is where Arbogast is murdered. He walks in to the house slowly and curiosly. This is suspenseful as the audience know hes looking for something and are waiting to see what it is.As he walks up the stairs, the audience see a door open slowly. This builds the tensi on and anxiety that the audience feel. We see someone step out of the room, at this point the music that was heard when Marion was murdered was played. The audience now associate this music with murder. The person who stepped out of the room starts to walk quickly over to Arbogast on the stairs. The music is very loud and quick at this point. The audiences heart rate is automatically increased and they are more exited/uncertain.You then again hear him being stabbed but dont actually see it. As Arbogast falls down the stairs, the camera is above him, and he then falls to the floor and the murderer stabs him again, then the music suddenly stops and the camera cuts straight to a different scene. All through that scene there is a lot of suspense. There is a great deal of suspense created in the scene where Lila goes to talk to Normans mother. Lila walks down to the cellar. The audience thinks she is down there because Norman had said previously that he was taking her down there.When Lil a walks into the cellar, she sees the back of who she thinks is Normans mother. She turns Normans mother around and find only the skeleton of her. Throughout this scene there is slow low music playing until she sees the skeleton then the music speeds up. We then see Norman running in to the cellar dressed as a woman. This confuses the audience but builds the suspense as the audience are unsure. When Norman walks into the cellar the music changes to the music played for the previous two murders.The music automaticly creates suspense as the audience presume there will be another murder. At this point, the audience immediately suspect that he is going to murder Marions sister but then we see Sam who stops him from murdering her. This creates suspense because it is a twist to what has happened with the other murders, so we do not know what to expect. As Sam fights with Norman he knocks the light bulb so it is swaying. There is a close up of the skeleton, it is in the follow, then in th e light, then in the shadow again etc. because of the light bulb swaying.The audience feels calm at this point as the light bulb swaying slowly and quietly gives the impression that the manoeuvre is over. When Marion is driving away from Phoenix with the stolen money, the audience hear the voices in Marion head. We hear the voice of her boss, what he might say if he found out she had stolen the money. This is suspenseful because we are thinking what if her boss does know she stole the money what would he do? The voices make the audience feel anxious because they hear what Marion is thinking, and therefore they are put in Marions position.We sympathise with Marion because we know what she is thinking. Although she stole the money, we dont feel sorry for Cassidy (the man whose money it was) he is a very arrogant man, he boasted about how much money he has and he tries to flirt with Marion. He doesnt respect Marion he thinks he can easily get her because of his money. He says I never c arry as much as I can afford to lose. This tells us that he can afford to lose the money and it would be straightforward to use the money for a good cause.If Marion had stolen the money from a charity, we would not sympathise with her because she is taking the money from a worthy cause. When Marion and Norman are in the parlour, Marion talks about Normans mother. She suggests he puts her into a mental home. Normans reaction to this suggestion builds suspense. He gets very angry and looks like he could get aggressive. He oft compares people to birds as stuffing birds is his hobby. When Marion suggests his mother could go to a mental home, Norman compares his mother to one of his stuffed birds on the wall, he says how she is as harmless as one of them.He says how a mother is a boys best friend which makes us believe that he is very close to his mother but he is closer to her then anyone expected. Hitchcock has the title The Master of Suspense. I personally dont think that he deserv es that title for this film. In 1960 he may have deserved it for this film as it was the first film like this, but now, in the year 2003, there are many films like this. It has suspense but I dont think it has enough suspense for him to have that title. Psycho is a horror/thriller film and it achieves the title of being a horror/thriller film better than it achieves the title of a suspenseful film.