Will Huntley - BA Hons Computer Animation Arts

Monday, 27 January 2014

Psycho (1960) Film Review Alfred Hitchcock

Figure 1

Psycho is a horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960 and is classed by many as being one of the greatest slasher films. The story revolves around a psychotic motel owner who is trying to hide the fact that he has murdered many of his customers.
Throughout the film, Hitchcock lead the audience on a guessing game and pulls us down routes of what he wants the viewers to think.""I was directing the viewers," the director told Truffaut in their book-length interview."You might say I was playing them, like an organ."" (Ebert, 1998). When we first encounter Bates, we start to feel as though he is a friendly character and feel sorry for him that he has to constantly take care of his mother. Little do we know that Bates is evil murderer. Hitchcock drops subtle hints of this in dialogue such as the conversation about putting Bates' mother in a home; Bates gets suddenly agitated and angry at the suggestion of an institution, this possibly suggesting that he has already experienced a place like that before.

Figure 2

Another factor contributing to the success of Psycho is is incredible musical score, "Bernard Herrmann's stabbing score, with its screeching atonal strings, which packs the real punch." (Kermode, 2010). This is especially true in the world famous shower scene. This scene would no where near have the same tension fueled effect if it was not accompanied by this score. The high pitch screaming fills your ear drums and makes every muscle in your body tighten. Hitchcock uses this to really throw the audience into the scene, it could make us feel the madness of the murderer or it could make us feel the blind fear of the victim.

Figure 3

Although some may consider the final explanation of the story from a doctor as an unsatisfactory ending to the classic, the ultimate shot of the Bates will stick with you forever. "His mind has been completely taken over by Mother, and he speaks to himself in her creepy voice" (Breslow, 2008). We are shown Bates sitting alone with an insane grin on his face until all of a sudden the skull of his deceased mother appears across the murderer. This is used to show that he his finally being taken over by the memory of his mother and that little sanity is left in the motel owner. The image of the glinting skull teeth will haunt every viewer for a lifetime.

Figure 4

Bibliography

Breslow, P (2008) Norman Bates: A Most Terrifying Mama's Boy http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91947125 (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Ebert, R (1998) Psycho Film Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960 (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Kermode, M (2010) Psycho: the best horror film of all time, In: The Guardian [online] http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/22/psycho-horror-hitchcock (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Illustrations

Figure 1, Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock [Film Poster] USA, Shamley Productions, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/Psycho_(1960).jpg (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Figure 2, Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock [Film Still] USA, Shamley Productions, http://thebacklot.mtvnimages.com/uploads/2013/10/psycho-norman-bates-anthony-perkins-taxidermy.jpg?quality=0.7 (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Figure 3, Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock [Film Still] USA, Shamley Productions, https://static-secure.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2010/3/29/1269881473433/1960-PSYCHO-001.jpg (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Figure 4, Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock [Film Still] USA, Shamley Productions, http://eng3122.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/600full-psycho-screenshot1.jpg (Accessed on 27/01/14)

Friday, 24 January 2014

From Script To Screen: Improved Story

I have re-thought my idea for my three words and have created another story.

Henry Schmitt is a very busy inventor. He spends most of his days cooped up his lab tinkering with all sorts of creations, rarely venturing into the outside world for a social life.
One day, Schmitt gets a knock on the door from his daughter and before he's allowed to protest his grand daughter is sprung upon him and now has to look after and baby sit the young toddler.
Schmitt, completely useless at looking after the child, leaves her to do what she wanted in the lab whilst he continues to work. However, what the young grand daughter wanted to do was to play with her skipping rope for hours on end. The endless tapping and swooshing of the skipping rope going round and round starts to make the inventor lose his mind; how could he concentrate with this constant distraction.
Schmitt does everything he can to stop the endless tapping of the skipping rope; offering food, forcing her to watch the TV, even confiscating the rope but this only results in the screaming and crying of the young girl.
Suddenly an idea springs to the inventor. Cunningly laying out a trail of sweets, he leads the girl to his most recent invention - a teleporter. The child enters the teleporter and before she knows Schmitt sends her travelling to a distant far away desert island where finally he can be left in peace and quiet and the girl can play as much as she wants.