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Hitchcock's Use Of Voyeurism In Psycho

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Psycho, like most Hitchcock films, employs voyeurism in an effort to place a sense of involvement and culpability on the audience for events at hand. Although Psycho begins as a seemingly normal story of a woman attempting to take life into her own hands, things quickly take a sinister turn. Perhaps the most unconventional move seen in films to that point in time, Hitchcock utilizes a perspective shift midway into the movie. Generally, through a first-person perspective, viewers are forced to form an emotional attachment to the narrator. This is often accompanied by an uncontrollable urge to see them succeed, despite the immoral actions of some. A key point of the film was undoubtedly the iconic shower scene. An intense scene, Hitchcock executed the gruesome murder flawlessly, without a need for the gore often found in newer horror films. Despite never showing Marion being stabbed, meticulously-planned camera angles along with sound effects, create an illusion which provides the same chilling effect. …show more content…

Furthermore, though this omniscient perspective is taken several times, the most substantial moment is that where the camera pans to the rolled up newspaper. Unknown to Norman, our secondary protagonist, it serves as a hiding spot for $40,000 cash. From this point on we begin to support Norman, hoping to see him succeed. As the mystery begins to unravel and the plot thickens, becoming more complex, leading up to the secondary climax and arrest of our

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