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Suspense and Tension in Hitchcock's 1960's Film Psycho Essay

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Suspense and Tension in Hitchcock's 1960's Film Psycho

The film 'Psycho' was produced in the 1960's by Alfred Hitchcock. It was a groundbreaking film in the 1960's. It was called 'mother of the modern horror movie'. The reasons for it to be such a landmark film were that it dealt with serious issues such as adultery and matricide. For the first time a toilet was shown being flushed in the film. Also it was the first time a woman was shown in bra. The film "Psycho" was highly promoted, Hitchcock wanted to manipulate his audience into fear and loathing; this was achieved by choosing to make the film in black and white rather than using colour to make the audience more terrified.

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The following policeman suspects something of Marion but the audience do not want Marion to be caught out as she seems like a nice person. This scene has many different camera angles and views giving the audience a real feeling of being inside the car and being in the film itself. When she is driving three different camera angles are being shown. The one with her worried look in her face builds up a lot of tension. The second one is the view of policeman following her; this builds up suspense as the audience are wondering why he is following her. The third view is of the road this builds up tension and suspense as the audience would want to keep going back to the other views to see where the policeman is and how is she feeling.

When Marion arrives at the motel, tension builds up because the motel is a very isolated, hostile and an overall unwelcoming place. The house on the top of the motel gives a gothic image and the fact that it is positioned high up makes it more menacing. There is a sense of uncertainty and insecurity given to the audience, building up more tension and suspense in the viewers mind. The time that Marion arrives is also a key factor in making the audience feel tense. It is dark, wet and deadly silent. Not the ideal conditions for a girl like Marion to go into a place where she has never
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