Psycho Essay

How have the cinematography, sound and Mise-en-scene been used in the ‘Psycho’ shower scene to build up tension?

 

Through use of the low key lighting it helps disguise the antagonist’s identity. From looking at the shot once it gives the impression to the audience that it is a woman. We think this because the long hair signifies that it is a blonde woman. However, as a man is dressed up as a woman, it is playing with gender stereotypes as it confuses the audience of who it actually is.
A golden mean is used here from the knife to their face to the lightening effect on the side, covering the identity. The knife here would be the first object that you look at signifying danger and that there will be a death implying that we know whose it is going to be, we know what is going to happen before the victim does. A close up shot is used to usually show emotion and reaction, however here it is used to but to disguise who it is, giving the audience time to try and work out who it is, but also ask questions of why they are going to kill this woman. The costume here comes across as what a female would wear, for example, a dressing gown what it looks like here as it is unclear because of the interrupted lighting suggesting that it may not have been planned but also it would look more casual and easy to miss as the victim was in the shower which would hide that someone is actually there.

The way the villain is holding the knife is in a violent way implying that they know what they are there for, the grip on the knife is tight implying anger towards the victim. Again the theme of the colours red run throughout the scene, as the clothing that the victim is wearing, stripes of red running throughout, showing that they are linked to the murder.

 

The golden mean is used again in this shot to show the audience that there is someone actually there and that she in oblivious to who it actually is. The line would start at the top left corner where the murders face is blurred straight through the shower down to the victims face.
The use of the shower curtain here is to make it harder to see if someone is there, plus the diegetic sound of the shower which means she won’t be able to hear if anyone is there. The audience can see that someone is there building up suspense as we know what is going to happen. The victim’s unawareness adds to this as it makes the audience want to tell the victim what is happening.
There is high-key lighting here, showing that is a exposed place, which exposes the victim as she is ‘pure’, linking to the fact she isn’t wearing anything so she can’t protect herself with anything, but also as it was so unexpected. This shot is a close up of her face which suggests she is unaware and doesn’t suspect anything, but also a close up of the hidden identity as it can be seen but not enough to know who it is. We see this from a third persons point of view to lead into seeing what her reaction would be but also what the antagonist will do, therefore we see both sides. On her hand she has red nail varnish on, red representing blood, death and danger, but also power which she doesn’t have here. The camera movement here is used for zooming to the person that is coming behind the shower curtain but also panning left to right to show that the innocent victim doesn’t know what is going to happen, therefore being exposed but also that we then know what is going to happen before she does.

 

 

 

Again, this shot is from a third person’s point of view. We see what is happen and what reactions are given also to show the scale of how big the area is that this takes place. From this high-angle shot we see who has the power as the villain is stood up and is in control of the main prop the knife, the villain is the dominant person in this situation. The shower is used as a prop here to so how hard it would be for her to defend her-self as the running water is slippery but also a distraction. She is also portrayed as being pure as she hasn’t got any clothes on so she can’t use any of them to help her.
The high-key lighting runs throughout the bathroom which could suggest innocence, meaning that she may not have done anything wrong or is an easy victim to have. The lighting of the bathroom may mean that there is going to a contrast in colour compared to what it was, for example, from a pure, clear white to a bloody red. Her nail varnish on her hands and toes is red implying that something was going to happen before she go into the shower as it is seen as a deathly colour, as it is the only vibrant colour that she has on her body other than purity.

The only diegetic sound here is the shower running, the water and the screams of the woman; other sound is added, for example the thunder and violins to create tension for when it is going to stop. The violins link into when the stabbing takes place which creates more of an affect for the audience as then her reaction would be worse. Water is usually something to link with calmness and relaxation like a shower should be but however the twisted reaction to what has happened changes what the water would signify.

The villain has no reaction here as the audience does not get to see their face implying that they are getting pleasure out of giving someone pain, giving the audience more confusion of why we don’t see the killer but also why this is actually happening. The body language of the actors conveys meaning by showing who the innocent party is and that the anger is from the killer. The victim cannot fight off the killer as she is too weak and exposed to them; she has nothing to protect herself.