Pyscho case study

 Psycho

Pyscho is a psychological thriller made in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock.
 

Femme-Fatale

Marion Crane, is the femme-fatale in the film. she steals some money and is instructed by the her boss to take it to the bank but instead she uses it to buy the love of her boyfriend who she is having an affair with.
  Instantly the audience can sense the archetype straight away buy seeing her as mischievous and dangerous and can tell her actions won't go unnoticed. the establishing of her archetype is a classic convention in noir thrillers. Whenever she appears with her boyfriend who she is having an affair with, she is submissive showing that she is trying to please him. She seems really desperate for the relationship and is willing to do anything to have him. But Hitchcock gets her to wear a white laced piece of lingerie which is resembles purity but because she is submissive to her boyfriend it shows that Hitchcock is challenging the generic archetype.

Hitchcock has been known as the 'lady-killer' director and knows how to present femme-fatales in films to show the audience. Hitchcock gets the female characters to go against the normal expectations and then he punishes them for what they do. Marion has the same fate and is brutally murdered in the famous shower scene.

Location

The location for the famous shower scene is obviously in the shower and what makes it more chilling is the fact that it happens in a normal situation in a normal place. The shower is an enclosed and confined space which is a classic convention in thrillers. She is also portrayed as vulnerable because she I naked and in the shower which is slippery meaning that she cant protect herself.

Having no ambient lighting adds to the effect because it creates a silhouette behind the shower curtain of someone approaching Marion and puts a chill into the audience because they know that someone is coming but Marion doesn't, but the audience is shocked by how she is killed and that is the mysterious convention of a thriller because no one knows who is stabbing her.

The soundtrack over the top when the silhouette approaches the shower curtain adds to the suspense and tension that is created giving the audience an unnerving ending to Marion.