Pyscho Analysis

Psycho Shower Scene Analysis (Remake) 

 

In the start of this scene, the shots are drawn out. This gives a calm and natural atmosphere of the women doing an everyday task, showering. However, the fact that the shots of her in the shower are drawn out makes us feel uneasy and gives us the feeling that something is going to happen. Also, during these long and drawn out shots, there are low angled shots of the shower that make the woman seem vulnerable. Also, the fact that the bathroom is so white and that she is naked makes her seem even more vulnerable. At the start there are also close ups of the woman at the side, and the rest of the space is filled with the shower curtain. We see that the woman is faced away from the curtain and again, this makes her seem vulnerable and makes the audience feel as though something is going to happen in the space where she is not stood. We see when the woman is washing herself that her nails are red. This portrays danger and blood. This also foreshadows that something may happen to the woman. During this point of the scene, the only sound that can be heard is the loud sound of the shower which blocks out all other sounds to show that she wouldn’t be able to hear if someone was to intrude, this again makes her seem vulnerable. 

 

 During the scene, the camera then begins to zoom into the shower curtain and shows a blurred figure behind it. This then gives the realism that something bad is about to happen and the pause before he opens the shower curtain builds up tension for the audience. He then pulls the curtain across and you hear the sound of the knife being drawn. This sound is non diegetic. Even though the sound of a knife being drawn may be considered as a diegetic sound, the sound would have been enhanced making it non diegetic. The woman then screams and the camera zooms into her mouth as she screams. This shows the woman's terror and fear, and it makes the audience feel that too. As soon as the man starts to attack the woman, this is when the shots begin to speed up. Cross-cuts are used as the action increases and this makes the audience feel on edge and it looks fast pace. Because the scene is fast pace, it shows the panic that the woman feels and makes the audience feel it too.  

 

During this part there is also music that begins to play. The music is synchronous as it is in synch with the genre, it fits with the genre and crescendos as it gets further into the attack. The instruments in the song sound like violins. They are not played gracefully as they usually would be, they are played in a high pitch so they are screeching, almost mirroring the fear and panic that the woman is feeling. The other sounds that can be heard are the woman screaming and the stabbing sound of the knife. The knife sounds will have again been enhanced to give more of an effect and possibly to make the audience cringe at the sounds of her being stabbed. In this attack part of the scene there are a lot of close ups on different parts of the woman's body and on the killers face and the knife. The close ups showing the woman show her moving and flinching, they are from the man's point of view. We also see blood run down in the bath, this is to show how she has been injured and make the audience feel shocked and make the woman seem vulnerable and hurt.  

 

When the shots of the man's face and knife are shown, this is from the woman's point of view and it makes the audience feel as though they are the woman and it makes them feel uneasy and vulnerable. During the cross-cutting, it sometimes cuts to short clips of dark, rainy clouds and the sound of thunder is heard. This is the use of pathetic fallacy to show the darkness of the mood and the danger the woman is in. When the attack is finished, there is a blurred mid shot showing the man walking away in the background with the running water in the foreground. This is shown from the woman's point of view and shows maybe her confusion as to what's happened and it's blurred and she cannot see who the man was. There is then a Birdseye view of the woman laying dead in the bath which shows how she is weak and still vulnerable although she is dead. This then turns into a graphic match of the plughole and then her eye. This shows how her life is draining away.