Psychological Themes In Alfred Hitchcock's Horror Film Psycho

In Stephen King's essay,“Why We Crave Horror movies,” King describes the reasons why people desire to watch horror movies. King elaborates on the fact that we are all mentally ill in our own way; going to horror movies just provokes those terrors. The young are more inclined to admire the excitement and thrill; however, as people grow older they lose interest. Horror movies, King describes, are for making oneself feel normal by comparison to the mentally insane. For entertainment and joy, people see horror movies, but the fun is morbid. The horror film is used to tap into the childish behavior of simplicity and extinguish the civilized behavior of an adult, King argues. “If we are all insane, then sanity

Hitchcock in his groundbreaking film Psycho employed techniques such as mise-en-sćene and motifs to explore themes of voyeurism, dualism and good vs evil by positioning the viewers in each scene as a third perspective, outsiders looking in to reinforce the theme of Birds

Exploring the world through the eyes of the anti hero Patrick Bateman, American Psycho exhibits a world in which society is centered around itself in such a scale that even a violent murderous psychopath goes unnoticed. Patrick Bateman is a narcissistic psychopath, who has no qualms about murdering homeless people, prostitutes, old women and even dogs, yet he seems like everyone else in the society. Everyone is so much alike that Bateman’s lawyer and even his colleague confuse him for someone else. In a country obsessed with American dream, director Mary Harron shows the grim reality of what happens once the dream is actualized.

Alfred Hitchcock is remembered as the "master of suspense", most notably in one of his cinemas, "Psycho".Hitchcock used a variety of sensory details, to shock moreover frighten his audience.Three sensory details that he used, is when we notice a cop following Marion, we see that Norman is stalking Marion, and when a shadowy figure shows up while Marion is taking a shower.

To the unknown eye, Hitchcock has carefully and skillfully used Mise-en-scene to his advantage, causing the audience to feel fear and a sense of caution towards the character of Norman Bates. It isn’t until we reflect back on the scene and notice how intelligently Hitchcock uses the positioning of props and the characters, lighting, camera angle and staging, that we notice how he has added meaning to his characters but has also to the film, creating suspense and fear from one scene to the end of the film. Ultimately proving the point that Hitchcock “the master of suspense” uses Mise-en-scene to not only help make a brilliant film but also uses it as his disposal to add meaning in his

Both of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, North by Northwest and Rear Window, were great movies with lots of suspense. The suspense, however, would not have been created without the entire mise-en-scene of the movies. Hitchcock was a master at using the elements of lighting, sound, and cinematography to heighten the suspense in his movies.

When mention about suspense, “Hitchcock” must be the first word appears out in the mind. Alfred Hitchcock produced plenty of films which are suspense and thrilling. In his filmography, Spellbound and Rope were produced in a bit earlier stage. Spellbound is the first batch of film using the topic of Psychoanalysis. Rope is the first experiment film made by Hitchcock. Even though, these two films produce early before the well-known film such as Psycho and Vertigo in his filmography. Hitchcock was successful in creating suspense and mystery in these two films as using rusty technique and editing.

In Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she writes about the relationship between voyeurism, cinema, and gender. She begins by describing the concept of scopophilia, which means to gain pleasure from looking. She writes that scopophilia is inherently active/masculine, and that pleasure is derived from looking at other people as mere objects. On the other hand, the passive/feminine is derived from the experience of being looked at (pg.188). Mulvey sees this binary relationship between viewer and object being viewed as a part of our culture, and the greatest example of this is found in cinema. She argues that the act of moviegoing satisfies these voyeuristic desires in people. She writes, “The mass of mainstream film portray a hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic fantasy,” (pg. 186). In this essay, I will further discuss her viewpoints on cinema and voyeurism, and how it connects to the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock.

Throughout the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho has revolutionized the horror genre with his ways of merging the obvious with the mysterious. Alfred Hitchcock, ‘Master of Suspense,’ is known for his filming techniques which made his film stand out compared to other horror films during his period. Hitchcock used these techniques throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewers to get an insight of what is happening in the film. One of the most important scenes, where Hitchcock used several of techniques to reveal the film, is the parlor scene. The shot-by-shot analysis of the parlor scene is characterized by dialogue, lighting, symbols, and the four-quadrant rule. These techniques give us insights

Is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ an appropriate text for VCE English in 2018? A speech delivered by a young feminist teacher to the Victorian Department of Education Conference on VCE text selection.

In the movie Psycho, Hitchcock used suspense in several ways to shock his audience and keep them intrigued. Hitchcock does this by using scary music and lighting.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho redirected the entire horror genre, and in doing so dismantled the prudent 1950’s societal barriers of cinema. Although unseen for its potential by the large studios of the time, Psycho became one of the crowning achievements of film history. While based partially on a true story of murder and psychosis from Wisconsin, the widespread viewing of this tale made way for a new era of film and ushered in a new audience of movie goers. The use of violence, sexual explicitness, dramatic twists, sound, and cinematography throughout this film gave Hitchcock his reputable name and title as master of suspense. In 2018, reviews of films often are headlined with “the book was better.” But, in 1960 there was no such thing

Hitchcock utilizes sound, camera work, MacGuffins, and plot twists to tell the storylines of the movies.

Norman Bates of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is an example of the first, while characters such as Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th and Michael Meyers in the Halloween series, along with Leatherface of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, are examples of the second. Movies started to include the violent but misunderstood acts of these characters into graphic film themes that became known as slasher films. In these films, psychopathic characters are usually unrealistic, exhibiting many characteristics, such as intelligence, sadism and a sort of supernatural

Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, England during the Edwardian Era. His parents, William and Emma Hitchcock, instilled the ideas of guilt and punishment into him from an early age. They were devout Catholics and sent their son to a strict religious boarding school. He was taken out of school, however, at the age of fourteen because of his father’s death. Due to his upbringing, Alfred developed a fear of punishment at a young age. His fear transformed into a morbid interest as he grew older. His fascination for guilt and punishment shaped the way his films were made.