Physco Assesement

Write a detailed analysis of the ‘Psycho’ shower scene

Overview

The shower scene in the film psycho really helps to make some dramatic tension for the viewer using various camera effects, editing techniques, sound and lighting. One of the first things that I notice is that the setting is a very open bathroom. The ‘openness’ of the room immediately makes me think that something is going to happen to the woman as it seems to space her out making her look more vulnerable than ever. To help add to the effect the camera pans across moving her from one side of the screen to the other, this helps us to see the scale of the space creating more tension.

The use of costume also helps to show that she is vulnerable. She wears a dress with high heeled shoes. This shows to me that she is quite feminine and this is something that is quite often related to vulnerability and helplessness in the thriller genre. The Villain in this film is also portrayed well by the use of clothing and costume. They are wearing dark clothing that also hides some of their face. This helps to keep a sense of the unknown and mystery adding to the tension and the suspense throughout the scene. This suits the lighting that is very light and really exposes her.

The use of props in any thriller film is very important and this film is no different. The knife is the main prop throughout the scene after it has been introduced. What makes this unique is that the knife is just a regular kitchen knife which makes us think and wonder as to whether the killing was a planned or opportunistic attack. The camera often cuts in to show the knife in more detail during the stabbing before cutting into the facial expressions of the victim and some of the killer to help show what they’re feeling. This helps to add to the tension especially with the diegetic classical high pitch music being played in the background alongside the violent stabbing sounds and the sound of screaming.

During the scene there are a lot of different shots including, each creating a different feeling for the viewer. For example at the start of the scene the camera angle is low and looking up at the woman as she has just walked into the bathroom. This helps to show her dominance but then throughout the scene the angle gradually changes and moves upwards to a high angle shot, eventually looking down at her in the shower. This now shows weakness and helps give us a sense of the timescale as she has gone from being a dominant figure to a very weak and vulnerable figure in the time it has taken her to get from the door to being in the shower. Another shot that was used well in this scene was the use of extreme close ups to show the fear, the expressions and the emotions of the characters during the stabbing. It worked well here and helped to build up a sense of fear and tension within the audience by showing what the victim and the villain were feeling at the time and what they were going through. High angled shots and weather shots were also used to give us a sense of the noise at the time. A high angled shot was used to look up at the shower which helped to show us that it was noisy for the victim and that she wouldn’t have heard the killer coming. To add to this shot the camera cut out to do a weather shot and showed us thunder and rain which helped add to our sense of the noise as well as adding to the stormy and aggressive atmosphere that was and had been build inside.

Detail of Three Shots

One of the most intriguing and tension building shots in the scene is that when we can see the killer approaching through the shower curtain and we cans see the victim completely unaware to the right of the camera. Before this shot the victim had been facing towards the camera but since she has slowly turned around and is completely submerged in the sound and the feel of the shower. She cannot see the killer approaching through the shower curtain but the audience can. This makes the audience generate quite a lot of tension between them and gives that classical thriller feeling of being on the edge of your seat as you don’t know what is going to happen to her. The sound of the shower is dominant over all things here and we can see that it is making her completely unaware. As the camera angle changes and pans across the left making the killer much more prominent and the victim much smaller it gives the sense that she is not as important anymore, like she has been knocked to the side and the killer is going to take centre stage. This helps to build up the tension as we know the killer is going to do something and that something dramatic is going to happen. The pace of the film during this shot has been edited to make it quite slow as this helps the audience to soak up all the action and really get a taste of what is happening. I also feel that sound effects have been added to add to the build-up in this shot because the shower seems very loud, but this effect has been used cleverly and helps to give us a sense of her unawareness and senselessness which is the meaning of this shot overall.

Another good shot in this scene is when the killer has just pounced on his victim and as stabbed her for the first time. In this shot the pace immediately picks up which gives the effect of panic in the room and a sense of urgency for the victim to get away. The camera angle here has changed to a high angle shot looking down on the two characters but more predominantly the victim. This gives the effect of weakness and helplessness which we saw in earlier shots when she looked very feminine and helpless. This shot is placed very carefully so that it doesn’t reveal the killers face and the use of water to help disguise it here is good. The hot water coming from the shower makes a steamy sort of atmosphere as well as the wig helping to hide his face from above. This shot has some clever positioning of the characters. The victim has turned around quickly in the panic and so has let her guard down. This means that she is even more vulnerable and the shot shows her slouching down the wall after she has been stabbed which adds to this effect. The use of lighting here is good too and the shadow of her slouching own against the wall gives great effect and helps to add to that feeling of darkness which could mean the end of life. I think some editing has taken place to the sound and some diegetic sound has been put in which helps to emphasis the scene and more imparticular the screams coming from the victim. This scene really helps to put the space and openness of the room into context and we can now see why it has made her so vulnerable and put into place with the fast pace editing it really helps add to the tension.

Another great piece of filming was when we saw the victims hand come around and try to grab onto the shower curtain after the killer had finished stabbing her. The camera work was very cleverly positioned to cut in and show just the hand which really helped to focus our attention and show that it was  a very, very weak attempt to save herself which helps to show us that almost all the energy has been drained out of her from the killer stabbing her. Her hand is also subtly wet from being in the shower which helps us to understand the setting a bit more. Her being in the shower is the perfect place for a murder, she is completely unaware and the water will wash the evidence of the murder away almost instantly. The camera angle changes back to a high angled shot here as the shower curtain falls down and she falls halfway out of the bath. This helps to add to the effect and emphasise to the audience that it is over and that all of the life from within her has drained away. She is also naked at this point from being in the shower which again shows up her vulnerability and shows how it had hindered her during the murder. At this point the editing has changed the pace of the scene back to the slow calm that is was before the climax which also helps to show to the viewer that it is all over now and that the life has been drained from her.