Analysis of Psycho on an Audience's Psyche

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Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho has been commended for forming the archetypical basis of all horror films that followed its 1960 release. The mass appeal that Psycho has maintained for over three decades can undoubtedly be attributed to its universality. In Psycho, Hitchcock allows the audience to become a subjective character within the plot to enhance the film's psychological effects for an audience that is forced to recognize its own neurosis and psychological inadequacies as it is compelled to identify, for varying lengths of time, with the contrasting personalities of the film's main characters. Hitchcock conveys an intensifying theme in Psycho, that bases itself on the unending subconscious battle between good and evil that exists in everyone through the audience's subjective participation and implicit character parallels. Split between good and evil First Analysis Scene: (use unsuspecting instead of random) The scene opens with a high angled panning shot through a large city, with texts showing “Phoenix, Arizona”, on “Friday, December 11th”, at “two forty-three p.m.” which is entirely random, however it creates a sense of curiosity as to why Hitchcock would choose it and whether it is important later on in the film. Through these arbitrary choices, Hitchcock subliminally allows the audience to relate to the situation that the two characters face can occur to anyone on an average day. They use cross-fading to zoom, focus, and change the distance while keeping a steady flow between each transition. The camera then zooms in gradually closer until it eventually lands on one specific building, then one particular window. The camera

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