PSYCHO!

Psycho

This is a sill from the movie “Psycho”, it is a POV shot (point of view shot) and shows the point of view of the woman in the shower, there is many times where this shot comes up and this is all to build up the tension because we don’t get much of the surroundings and what’s behind her as it’s a close up of the shower head. The shower head is centred so all the focus is on the water and the shower head, meaning that this is what they’re wanting the people to focus on the water and the shower, like the woman is making us feel a sense of calm and peace. The shower symbolises cleanliness and purity which from later on we know it isn’t, as the woman gets murdered in it. The shower is also a place that is private and the killer intrudes the personal space.  This shot is repeated many times, and only for a short period, making the viewer focus more.

This is a third person point of view where it is framed so that only important subjects are in view, and so that we can see  what’s going on behind the woman, who is completely oblivious to what’s about to happen. In this shot the golden mean can mean used as you can see the shadow in the left hand side and it goes down to the woman, showing us the important subjects. Unlike most of the shots in this scene this is a mid-shot and then closes in to the shadow behind the shower curtain, building up tension and panic as we can see what will happen yet the victim is blissful in the shower.  We are left with a sense of urgency to say that something bad is going to happen, to make the victim notice, making the viewer feel hopeless and like the victim. The only prop here is the semi-transparent shower curtain; the fact that it’s only semi-transparent gives it a sense of mystery as it gives us information that someone is there, yet it leaves us in the dark as the person is distorted and hard to see, as they’re lit from behind.

 

This is a close up shot of the killer and even though the face is centralised we can’t make anything out, as the face is dark from the light which is behind the killer, and also because of the water. This leads us to the thing most in focus which is the knife, the way that the rest of the bathroom is cut out makes the viewer focus on the killer, making it more emotional and personal as it is also in the point of view of the victim making us empathize with the victim. The way it is framed makes us focus on the killer, which is quiet uncomfortable as we have no choice, to either look at a blank face or a knife. The killer herself ( it is obvious it is a female by her hands) is dressed rather particular as she is disguised giving a sense of mystery  yet her outfit is bland and doesn’t make her stand out, she also opted to go for the female disguise which is unusual as usually the killer would go for the opposite gender. It is also peculiar as the killer is a female, as the typical killer in thriller movies are men and the typical victims are women.

 

This is an extreme close up of the victim, showing fear and emotion. Extreme close ups make the viewer uncomfortable and even though this shows emotions and fear well, it does make the viewer uncomfortable as well, maybe even empathizing with the victim as the emotion is extreme making the viewer feel the same panic. There is an editing technique used where we see the whole face and then it zooms in, having been put there to at first show the terror in her eyes, and when she starts screaming the corresponding sound. 

This is a Dutch mid shot of a third person view from above of the victim being attacked, and struggling to fight back. The fact that the angle is a canted angle gives us a sense of panic and chaos; it is abnormal, which fits the scene as she’s being attacked. The mid shot which is one of the only mid shots in the shower scene gives us an overall insight into what’s happening yet, the killer is still hidden as the bar goes across the face. The upper angle it has been shot at makes the victim look helpless and vulnerable, as well as her being naked as it exposes her completely, both on the outside and in. The way the victim is standing shows that she’s really struggling to keep the killer away, whilst the killer is quiet calm; with her posture straight and her arm straight out knowing what she’s doing.

The moving sequence

Overall the sequence works well together as its cut in different places giving us lots of points of view and angles to show different moods and build tension, and using mise-en-scene to give further information about each character yet still being in the dark about the killer even though we get a lot of details about her. There is also a lot of symbolism in this scene where everything has a meaning as to why it’s there.