How does Hitchcock create tension in the film ‘Psycho’?
As the film ‘psycho’ starts we get the impression that it is a romantic film and Hitchcock also does this in his film ‘The Birds’.
The film consists of two murders the first being Marion, she steals $40,000 from her bosses client in order to run away with her lover Sam, who she is having an affair with. Because of her morally contempt character we expect Marion to be hunted to be hunted. She ends up at ‘The Bates Motel’ where it is the beginning of the end. The next murder is a detective that is there to look upon the disappearance of Marion. Marion’s little sister Lila and her lover Sam goes to investigate for themselves this is a lucky escape, the audience it given the idea that they are secluded in ‘The Bates Motel’ what I will be discussing in my essay is how Hitchcock creates tension in the film ‘Psycho’.
As the film ‘psycho’ starts we get the impression that it is a romantic film and Hitchcock also does this in his film ‘The Birds’. As the film starts all the writing on the screen looks like a police report, this opening scene is treated in a very sterile way. We notice that Marion is a very attractive woman and later on in the film this may become a problem for her, we spend the first scene with Marion so we get to know her as a character and at this stage we also start to care about her.
When Marion runs away with the money this builds tension in the film because we as the audience wonder what she is going to do with the money. Once Marion has gone home and packed her case she drives off, as she approaches a zebra crossing in town she glances at her boss crossing in front of her, it is also like he is following her. Hitchcock uses the characters to tease the viewer and to pull them along desperately wanting more.
As Marion gets closer to ‘The Bates Motel’ Marion problems seem to get worse, when the police wake her up from being asleep in her car Marion gets really tense and...