Hitchcock’s Suspense in Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock does an excellent job of building suspense in his 1960 film Psycho. Throughout the film, he does a terrific job of captivating the viewer and keeping them on the edge of their seat. This can be seen in the infamous shower scene. Before Marion enters the bathroom, she is sitting down at her desk with soft music playing in the background. When is begins to step into the shower, there is only diegetic sounds of her taking off her clothes and turning on the water being heard. At this moment, the viewer feels the shift of tone. Marion showers with a smile on her face, as she enjoys this moment where she can finally relax. However, the shot of the silhouette on the other side of the curtain makes the viewer more and more uneasy as it gets closer. And finally, once the figure moves the curtain, the loud scream from Marion followed by the horrific music playing in the background furthers the suspense even more. This leads to her vulnerable death. The extreme close up of her hand as she is falling down is a great cinematic choice because it displays her weakness in this situation.  In addition, the pan towards the shower drain followed by the dissolve to a shot of Marion’s lifeless eyes are also magnificent decisions of camerawork and editing. The pan shot shows the viewer that literally all of her life and vitality is going down the drain. Her pupils are small and restricted from all of the light inside of the bathroom. Once the camera zooms out of her more and you see the water still running, it sends chills to viewer. Hitchcock’s decision to kill a character with such prominence this early in the film was truly shocking. This is just one example of how Hitchcock builds suspense in Psycho.