Analyse the Techniques Used by Hitchcock To Create and Maintain Suspense In his Film Psycho

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Analyse the Techniques Used by Hitchcock To Create and Maintain Suspense In his Film Psycho

This essay will look at how Alfred Hitchcock created and maintained

suspense in his 1960 motion picture "Psycho". The film Psycho was

originally a book wrote by Robert Bloch, which was based on real life

killings. Psycho was Hitchcock's forty-seventh film. This shows that

Hitchcock was already an experienced film director. Psycho was an

immediate Box-office success, and obtained the slogan "The film you

must see from the start". This is because one of the main characters

is killed early on in the film. Hitchcock's directing carer started in

1922. By 1959 he was one of Hollywood's best-known personalities.

These factors contribute to the suspense and tension in Hitchcock's

film Psycho.

Irony whether verbal or visual plays an important role in the film

Psycho, it also comes around quite frequently. One of the first

examples of visual irony is when Marion is at work getting shown

$40,000 by the client. After she has been given the money she is

sitting under a picture of a swamp, and after she is killed she gets

driven into a swamp, then sinks under it.

Therefore this is a case of visual irony. Another case some people may

class as visual irony is when Bates and Marion are in the bedroom and

there is a vivid outline of Bates' shadow. This could show that Bates

has a split personality. Another thing that could show about Bates

split personality is when Bates is standing under a tree that splits

into two branches. A branch for each part of Bates personality.

The cases of verbal irony are as important as the cases of visual

irony. They are more cases of verbal irony than that of visual. For

Example when the traffic cop stops Marian and says, "There are plenty

of motels in this area…I mean…just to be safe." Well she gets to a

motel to be safe yet she dies in this motel. A different case of

verbal irony is when Marion is buying a new car and the car salesman

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