Psycho
Psycho made good use of music to signal parts which were meant to be uneasy. I think that the fact that the film was black and white added to the creepiness. From a film perspective I thought the scene where the main girl was driving in her car and the camera was on her face while the audio was of what was happening back at the office was pretty cool.
The set up to the murder seemed pretty simple at first but it got more complex as the film went on which kept things interesting. For example, the weird taxidermy guy has a creepy personality and he has a creepy hobby (or something that is more than just a hobby), and he lives and works in a place that nobody visits. It’s the perfect place for a woman who is traveling alone to die in, and he seems like a murderer. My only reservation was that the dude seemed to be a bit too typical for the murderer role, so had suspected that he might not be one.
The introduction of the sick old mother spices things up. Everyone thinks of her as a sick (but not mentally ill type of sick) old lady, so to the outside, she can’t be doing anything remotely bad. At first I felt bad for the awkward taxidermy guy because it seemed like he felt trapped and was scared to leave his insane mother even though she murdered his guests. After the woman dies, he just goes and cleans up the room like it’s just everyday business.
I honestly didn’t see the ending coming. I thought the corpse was just a bait that the mother had set up, so it was pretty funny to see the dude come out screaming with a knife in hand and a wig on his head. Maybe in the 1960s this was scary but I couldn’t help but to laugh at him because it looked ridiculous.
I think the fact that he was insane was fair to the audience. If there was zero indication that anyone was insane then the ending would’ve sucked, but the concept of insanity is floated to the audience from early on in the film. The guy gets really agitated when the woman mentions an institution and the guy later mentions that “We all go a little mad sometimes.” I just believed that his mother was the insane one and that he just felt stuck, when in reality he was so insane that he was two crazy people in one body.
I also was very mislead by the portrayal of his mother as a living person during the film. It felt like Norman had to put up with so much with his crazy, murderous mother. Hitchcock set up that plot point very well, but then pulled the carpet out underneath your feet, revealing that Norman is the murderer. It's a classic example of the mystery plot twist, and I'm beginning to understand why people revere Hitchcock as director.
ReplyDeleteThe entire time Norman was describing his hobby I couldn't help but think that he was going to kill Marion and stuff her. I really thought he was foreshadowing her death, so I was surprised when his mother killed her in the shower.
ReplyDeleteYeah the music certainly did have a big effect on the tone and such, and I also agree with some of the murder scenes being laughable because of the graphics. The part when the detective died made me chuckle because the graphics were just really fake.
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