Psycho: (1960) (USA)
-Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (the ‘master of suspense’)
-Regarded as the ‘Granddaddy’ of slasher films.
-Context: Based around the Ed Gein killings that occurred in the 1950s in America
Form: An extract from the film Psycho, famously known as ‘the shower scene’.
Function: To provide the audience with masochistic and sadistic pleasure.
• M-I-G-R-A-I-N
Media language:
-Extreme close-ups- provide masochistic pleasure for the audience through being able to identify with the character. Extreme close-ups also help to intensify and heighten the feeling of terror.
-Knife: Phallic symbol. Sign of male dominance and patriarchy as it penetrates the female character. Context (political/social): Link to 1960’s introduction of the contraceptive pill- ‘male backlash’?
-black and white colour: Hitchcock makes a deliberate decision to use black and white colour despite the availability of colour at the time. The conscious decision that Hitchcock makes to use B&W provides the film with a heightened sense of fear and anxiety by not being able to see everything in full reality/colour.
-Naked female – connotes vulnerability and sadism.
-Music- Dramatic, fast paced- adds to tension.
Institution:
Paramount pictures.
Genre:
Categorised by some as the ‘granddaddy’ of slasher films. Makes use of generic techniques such as a female victim, phallic symbols etc.
The conventions of slasher films have of course developed to include more elements such as a group of teenagers which psycho does not have.
Representation:
Female: victims, inferior.
The victim’s sister however, presents characteristics of strength and perseverance.
Audience:
Male
20s
Ideologies:
Issues of morality: The female victim takes part in adultery and theft. She is killed which aims to condemn such acts to the audience.
However, the male adulterer survives in the film. This suggests that the film has patriarchal values as the female is condemned but the male isn’t.
Narrative:
Linear narrative.
Relationship between mother and son: fatal downfall.
