Alfred Hitchcock Suspense

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Alfred Hitchcock will always be known as the ‘master of suspense’ and an amazing producer and director of some of the worlds most famous thriller films ever made. Hitchcock has tree films in the Top Ten in the American Film Institute’s top 100 thriller and suspense films (American Film Institute, 2001). The 1960 film, ‘Psycho’ made it to number one because of Hitchcock’s use of suspense and tension used throughout the film keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. Hitchcock achieves this impeccable level of suspense by using music and lighting, but most effectively, he gains so much suspense in this film is by using certain camera shots, shot types, symbolism and editing. ‘Camera shots are used demonstrate different aspects of a films…show more content…
The camera is used for more than just telling a story, the camera is used to manipulate the viewers and hide the truth. Hitchcock uses camera angles to create tension, particularly during ‘the chase scene’ with Marion Crane and the policeman at the start of the film just after Marion has stolen $40,000 and left Arizona. As Marion sleeps, a police officer taps on her window, she wakes up and her and also the audience’s immediately think that she has been caught for stealing the money. As Marion rolls down her window and is faced by the policeman, he is viewed from a low angle, which represents how Marion sees him through her eyes. The low camera angle creates a feel of intimidation and power. The audience then feels a sense of false suspense as Hitchcock has made it to believe that Marion is being caught out for the crime she has committed. After Marion is allowed to drive off after not actually being caught with the cash, a close up of Marion is shot as she fiddles…show more content…
In the chase scene, the changing of eyeline matches from Marion and the rear view mirror are to clarify the fact that the policeman is continuing to follow her and that create the suspense of what might happen when he catches up to her. In the shower scene, once the shower curtain has been opened and the music has started playing, there are a lot of cuts as she is being stabbed, it cuts to the murderer and it then follows the knife and then just cuts to the knife hitting the skin and back and forth until Marion is dead. As Marion lays on her stomach in the bathtub, at her feet we watch the blood run with the water and go down the drain, signifying that her life is going down the drain. A graphic match is then down as the blood going the drain than transitions to her lifeless eye as she lays
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