Psycho (1960) Shot analysis (1)

In this shot, Norman is dressed as his mother and is about to stab Marion. He is back lit and in silhouette to create suspense because we do not know who the killer is at this point. This shot is taken with a handheld camera, which then goes to very fast paced montage of shots which include some point of view shots and close ups, so you can see the emotion on Marion’s face.

Because Norman is dressed up as his mother, this gives the audience the stereotypical horror ideology of being outside the CDI, because what Norman does is obviously not normal. This also relates to the historical context of the film because in 1957 Ed Gein had been arrested after murdering lots of people, dressed as his mother. This scene illustrates the importance of genre theory as written by Thomas Schatz’s “Hollywood Genres” because it has lots of horror conventions in it, but it also shows the important of Janet Staiger’s “Audience Studies” theory in that the references to Ed Gein would have made the film even more powerful in 1960.