Psycho 

Throughout the opening scenes of the movie, multiple enigma codes are used to hook the audience and motivate the main character into action.
The movie begins with Marion and Sam. Sam is awaiting a divorce between him and his first wife and as a result Marion is almost his mistress until he can pay the fee for the divorce. Following this we meet a rather obnoxious and horrible rich man, who gives Marion a lot of money to deposit for him. After this we see the money on her table, then the camera slowly pans to her packing a suitcase then back to the money. This enigma code makes the audience question where she is going and what she is doing with the money and where she is going. It hooks the audience and makes them continue watching.
Hitchcock uses multiple implications and enigma codes through the film. Norman mentions taxidermy on multiple occasions and stuffing 'dead things'. This could be seen as foreshadowing Marion's future. This builds tension because it makes the audience question why anyone would bring up a conversational topic such as that. Also, when talking about the institution Norman is able to describe it in detail, this again makes the audience question how he knows the detail and if he has been in the institution himself, what for.

From the very beginning of the movie the camera forces the audience to identify with Marion's character, because every scene up until the 'Shower Scene' Marion is in every single scene and there are hundreds of close up shots of her. This forces us to identify with her because we see so much of her, When we do not see closeups of Marion we see things from her point of view, like when she is driving away from the police officer after she has fallen asleep in her car. The camera shots change from a close up of Marion to looking in her rear view mirror, at the police officer as she drives away, so we identify with her again because we are seeing her life from her point of view. In all of the close ups of Marion, the main feature we focus on are her eyes. This may be because the eyes are the windows to the soul and the audience may try to figure out her emotion and what she is going to do, continue to steal the money, or do the 'right' thing and give it back.

After the murder of Marion, we are forced to identify with Norman's character because the camera shots follow a similar style, with close up shots and point of view shots. We have approximately a 5 minute sequence whereby the audience in positioned in Norman's point of view, while he cleans up the murder scene and Marion's body, this forces us to identify with his character. As well the final shot of the movie before the credits is a close up of him, where we see his expression. This close up is effective because it shows his contorted smile makes Norman look really sinister, like the actions he carries out. The fact he breaks the fourth wall and looks directly into the camera at the audience leaves them feeling vulnerable and exposed.

The use of black and white makes this film altogether chilling. The dark and shadowy nature makes it seem altogether more creepy because darkness has connotations of evil and danger. Also the color scheme fits the genre of a thriller because it is supposed to be chilling and creepy. The use of black and white also makes the film feel much more classic because many of the first films were filmed in black and white, even the first ever colour movie, The Wizard Of Oz, uses black and white. The fact there is no colour also removes the audience slightly, because audiences do not see in black and white, therefore it may make the gory 'Shower Scene' much less threatening because we cannot see the colour of the blood, which in it's self is a creepy colour or being a bright shade of crimson.

The non-diegetic music throughout the whole film is very orchestral and high pitched, this creates tension because generally music is used to signify to an audience when something is about to happen. Therefore the music in this thriller creates tension and builds the audience up for something dramatic and shocking.
Particularly in the shower scene the music is very sharp and in short loud bursts, it also matches the same rhythm that 'Mother' follows during stabbing Marion. This again adds dramatic tension because it is like the whole killing was planned all along, right down to matching the beats of the music. The shots of the murder are in a sort of montage and are very snappy. This disorientates the audience because we don't know what we are going to see next or which bit of Marion we are going to be exposed to, again this makes it a chilling thriller.


One of the ideologies that may come through in this movie is the idea that 'What goes around comes around, but maybe worse.' For example. Marion stole money which is wrong, so as a result she endured something painful, as a payback for doing something wrong.
Another ideology exposed in this film could be that 'loneliness makes you crazy' because Norman has been on his own in that house for years and now he's lost his mind and is a killer.