Phsyco: Shower Scene Analysis

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Psycho is a 1960 American horror film by Alfred Hitchcock. One of the most famous scenes within the film is the shower scene where the actress Janet Leigh who plays the character Marion Crane gets murdered while taking a shower. The scene first starts off with Janet in her bedroom then going to take a shower. This scene is very cliché for a horror film because the audience are sitting there saying don’t go and have a shower. In typical horror films the females that always run back up the stairs from there killer or hide or take a shower always end up dead because they trap themselves. As an audience we know what is going to happen but she is unaware of anything that could or is going to happen to her. The camera angles show every part of the scene and they cut from different parts of the shower. When Janet is showering we have several camera shots which are cut and you have several camera shots facing the shower head as if it was watching her and this is important because it shows us that there is something or someone watching her but she is still very unaware. They also show a lot of her body as she is showering to again add to the naivety that Janet has. When the killer actually comes in and he opens the shower curtain this gives a sense of shock to the audience as well as Janet. The music also adds to the scene when she is being stabbed to death because it’s very repetitive like the stabbing and the constant high pitch sound makes the scene more dramatic and over the top. After Janet is finally dead we see her blood washing away down the drain as if her life is washing away down the drain. We also have her fall out of the shower all tangled up in the shower curtain with open eyes and a glare that shows us that she’s watching her life washing away down the drain. The whole scene together which is about 3 minutes long has lots of action which puts the audience
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