Psycho Essay

The enigma codes help to move the story along and capture the audiences thoughts and expectations, for example, the money- the money that the main character Marion Crane steals is seen on her bed as she packs her suitcase and it makes us wonder if she'll keep it or give it back. As she keeps the money to give to her lover Sam, it pushes Marion into action- she goes on the run to find Sam and evade her boss and the man she stole the money from. You could say that the money is the reason behind Marion and the detective's deaths as if Marion hadn't stolen the money, she would not have gone on the run or stopped at the motel and therefore the detective would not have come looking for her and go himself killed. The money set off a chain of events and put the plot in motion but becomes irrelevant as the money is destroyed when Norman disposes of Marion's body.

The director Alfred Hitchcock uses close up shots, mostly of Marion when she is driving so the audience can see her facial expressions and reactions. The actor who plays Marion also has really entrancing eyes which capture the audience's attention and is the thing we focus on when we see close up shots of her. The use of 52 quick shots when Marion is killed is to maybe show the chaos of the situation as all the shots are in no particular order, just a random order. For the first 47 minutes, Marion is in every shot and so we follow her when she's on the run. When she is murdered it challenges the audience expectations as we don't expect her to die as we've followed her through out the film for 47 minutes and we look for someone else to identity with. The next/only person we see straight after Marion's death is Norman who we don't really identify with as he is seen hiding Marion's body and covering the murderer's tracks. We don't really identify with any one else in the film for a short time, some people may be able to identify with Lilah as she's looking for her sister and goes looking for her in a dangerous setting. We also see quite a number of shots from Marion's point of view, for example, the shot where the policeman is peering through the car window at her. It helps the audience identify with her situation and see what she sees.

The restricted narration is so the audience finds things out as the character does which adds the element of surprise and so we only find out the 'villains' intentions as Marion does. It adds suspense and dramatic tension, as does the music as it's an ear screeching and almost unpleasant sound that we hear through out the film, mostly when Marion is being followed or feels paranoid.

We identify and sympathise with Marion because she stole the money for love and to be happy. The tough situation which Sam is in, is something the audience can identify with and it makes the characters likeable. The binary opposition could be love vs reality which emphasises the love situation that is complicated because of the real life situation.

The director's choice to have the film in black and white could be to add emphasis or to outline the dark shadows and make the film and the settings seem darker as a whole. This adds to the thriller genre and makes the film seem more creepy or spooky. The black and white could also be used to dim down the colours and to keep the audience from getting distracted.