How has the director used sound and camera angle convey a claustrophobic environment to create a sense of menace in the film psycho ?

How has the director used sound and camera angle convey a claustrophobic environment to create a sense of menace in the film psycho ?

 

Psycho was is a horror thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was released in theaters on the 8^th of September 1960 in the USA by the production company Shamley Productions.. In terms of box office gross the film has made $50,000,000 worldwide by January 2004.

According from the research gathered from IMDB it appears that this film’s intended target audience is Hitchcock fans. However this film has produced a secondary audience of horror film fans who want to see a film that doesn't rely on gore; “I would recommend this movie to any horror movie film fanatic. I would especially recommend this movie to any horror movie fan not desensitized by Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, or Scream.. if such a fan exists”.

As the scene opens we hear non diegetic noise of violins playing slowly in the background with a mid-shot of the “protagonist” Marion Crane writing in her journal, it then cuts to a close up of her writing to show continuity. The use of the slow violin build tensions and the close up of Marion not only conveys continuity but cuts out the audience from the big picture i.e. we do not fully see what is going on in the background we therefore generate a sense of intrigue and uncertainty as we want to know what is happening. Backed with the slow violins we can establish that something menacing is building up but we cannot see it due to the  constraints of the camera angle.

This technique is repeated throughout the scene with the same effect however with a few alterations made.

Soon the violins fade out and all we can hear are simple diegetic noises such as a toilet flushing and a door shutting. These devices employed create an awkward silence as the tension from the previous sounds i.e. the violin has slowed down. This awkward silence creates a sense of menace as these everyday noises backed with close up shots of Marion indicate that Hitchcock is hiding something from us that my danger our protagonist whom we have started to build a relationship with; all we can do is watch as know Marion is in danger. We feel as if we are trapped in our seats as we do or see anything within the close shot to ease our minds. 

 

This same feature is used in the scene as Marion gets in the shower uses close ups of her legs now with no clothing on as she enters the shower and pulls the shower curtain. Furthermore we only hear short grunts and little dialogue with no music to tell the audience how to feel. The fact that she is shown to be nude connotes vulnerability, in addition the close up shot of her in the shower emphases how small the shower is; she could be attacked by someone and there would be no escaping them in such a closed off environment. This imagery of her in the shower conveys menace as we the audience expect the worse to occur due to previous features such as violins playing and closed off close ups connote a bad event building up in the background.

Next we see a low angle shot of a shower head with water pouring from it. The low angle shot gives the shower head power on not only Marion but on the audience Hitchcock has chosen this shot to connote the shower head as an eye watching over on Marion but on us as well. This shows entrapment as Marion can do nothing but almost lay victim to the shower head as it just watches her. This idea of entrapment and closed off spaces is further emphasised by the imagery of the water pouring from the shower connoting bars which also connote being caged. Moreover this causes a sense of menace as we can assume that Hitchcock is trying to show how trapped and vulnerable to an attack Marion is.

Finally during the scene we see a mid-shot of a blurred silhouette covered by a shower curtain and in the right hand corner we can see Marion bathing. The shot in particular emphasises Marion’s vulnerability as most of the shot is focused on this silhouette covered by the white curtain, it shows how small Marion is, additionally the use of the shower curtain conceals this mystery person’s identity but also shows how closed off Marion is thus showing us how helpless she is and creating an atmosphere of menace. In addition she is completely oblivious to this black figure creeping up on her; the audience can establish that this figure represents death as it is slowly creeping up on her. Which is connoted by the use of a black silhouette in robes; black robes connote the idea of the grim reaper.

To summarise Hitchcock uses little no sound to create a sense of menace in build up to the shower scene murder. Furthermore he uses many close ups to hide things from his audience to allow the audiences imagination to think of the worst. These close ups also connote how closed off an vulnerable Marion is.