Alfred Hitchcock is famous for working within the suspenseful, and dark genres of horror and film noir. He had a keen ability to use the cinematography and the manipulation of mise-en-scene to create fear from the confusion, and play on that uncertainty of his characters to say something about the existential absurdity of the human condition. In Psycho one of his most famous films Hitchcock uses these tools to show the audience a world of haphazard coincidence and comment on humanity’s ultimately insignificant role in our own psychologically complicated world.
The Story opens with a helicopter shot Phoenix. We see that it has quite a metropolitan hustle and bustle as the soundtrack is filled with the sounds of automotive and human traffic. From this massive establishing shot we move in first to one area, then one building, then one window, and find one character Mary Crane. It is through this opening sequence that Hitchcock places Mary in context as but one person in a busy world; emphasizing her insignificance in terms of the big picture even in the less generic “big city” of Phoenix.
Quickly the story focuses on Mary the we get medium shots of her with an emphasis on her countenance and we try to figure out her situation and motivations. We know from her conversation with Sam that they are separated by their lack of money a dissatisfaction with the status quo is established. While talking with Cassidy about money as a source of happiness, Mary’s claim that she is not “inordinately” unhappy shows her realistic view of herself as one person in a big world of no inordinate significance herself. The temptation of stealing the money, which can buy happiness for some, is introduced and Mary’s human frailty shows through; because after all she could always be more happy. This common theme of human desperation and temptation solidifies our identification with Mary while complicating her character which makes her more compelling.
Immediately after Mary decides to take the money Hitchcock brings in the shrieking string score establishing a chaotic and frightening sound scape that though non-diegetic superbly reflects the internal turmoil of Mary. We get closeup shots of her driving along a dark and windy road. The claustrophobic quality of the shots along with Mary’s tormented expressions and the shrill soundtrack create a surreal sequence that mirrors Mary’s journey into a psychological abyss. Within the first fifteen minutes of the film we have gone from a massive city scape filled with thousands of people to the internal dilemma of one person out of those thousands. Mary keeps moving and the tension continues to build. Finally as the storm builds and the rain pours down she ends up lost. It is at this point that she encounters the Bates Motel and decides to stop.
Totally the opposite of Phoenix the Bates motel is away from the activity of civilization. Sitting next to a road of low traffic since the highway development there are few people who have much reason to visit the place. In an opposite way the solitude of the motel serves to emphasize that Existential anxiety that can afflict people when they are separated from society. This anxiety about passing time and loneliness friendship and solitude is implicit in the conversation that Mary has with Norman. Her tone and words elucidates Mary’s motivations and her attitudes about the world. It shows her as a person trying to reconcile her theft and her ideas about traps and freewill. Her conversation with Norman reminds her that she can get out of her self-made traps and so she decides to do the right thing and return the money.
Now we are relieved because Mary is relieved, her thoughtful conversation with Norman has given her hope to make things right. Hitchcock quickly erodes this relief as we see that Norman is a peeping Tom. A closeup of his eye glaring at Mary undressing through a hole in the wall shows his primitive desire and reflects the voyeuristic gaze. We are next invited to identify with this gaze through a POV shot. There is a unsettling but not whole heartedly condemning sensibility here, as Norman was earlier shown to be a shy fellow. His curiosity about the attractive woman seems harmless, since he is shown jogging back up to his house and away from Mary who he knows is vulnerable in the shower.
We next get a view of Mary from a raised angle we look down on her face as she smiles satisfyingly letting the shower water splash her. She has reached a point of satisfaction about her life she is happy and is relieved to have her guilt and fear lifted. Suddenly we see a silhouette of the mother we then transition to the POV of the figure and essentially witness the brutal stabbing of Mary from that POV and a variety of very fast cuts to heighten the confusion, tension, and violence of the sequence. The music is back again with a more violent undertone this time reflecting Mary’s fear and mimicking her screams.
And so Mary the main character dies there at the closing of the first act. An extreme closeup of her eye is graphically matched to the drain where we vividly see the black blood swirl down the drain and with it her life fading from her eyes.