Sound Analysis: Psycho By Alfred Hitchcock

Sound Analysis: Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock (Shower Scene)

Sound is an incredibly relevant part of filmmaking. Although often misunderstood, it helps to generate a more realistic episode by recreating the sonic experience the scene needs. Its main goal is to enhance the emotions that each section is trying to convey by adding music and effects alongside moving images. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), is one of the most popular films of the XX Century (Thomson, 2009). Commonly recognised as a masterpiece for its cinematographic, editing and musical values, it changed cinema forever by “playing with darker prospects (…) of humanity such as sex and violence (Thomson, 2009)”. This paper will analyse the sound effects used in the shower scene and its repercussions

in the dramatic development of the extract.

Psycho, shows the story of a young woman, who, after stealing $40.000 from her co-worker’s client, tries to escape in order to be reunited with the man of her dreams. Nevertheless, she stops in the middle of her journey and checks in a motel to rest the night. Afterwards, she meets Norman, the son of the owner of the hotel, who tells her about his story and his mother. However, not everything goes as plan because Norman, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, is both, mother and son, and also, the responsible for Marion’s death.

The shower section, in accordance to Auiler, “is probably one of the most famous scenes in film history” (Auiler, 2009). With over 78 camera set ups, fast-paced cutting and one of the most popular soundtracks, it quickly became one of the most studied sequences in the XX and XXI century. It promptly changed the mood of the film to a highly frenetic, fearful picture due to the fast-cutting shots and incredibly strong sound effects and soundtrack.

Regarding sound design, the scene has strong diegetic and non diegetic tracks.

The first section, which lasts for the first 35 seconds, has a predominant non-diegetic foreground and a subtle diegetic background. The foreground segment corresponds to a musical score made by multiple violins playing a lengthy discordant piece. It is characterised for its high pitched notes which create a feeling of tension and anticipation to the audience. On the contrary, the background sounds, which encompasses both, the ripping paper and Marion’s body movements, are both diegetic and lower in intensity and volume in comparison to the forefront. It is possible to affirm that the background noises do not play a major role in the fragment but rather complete the picture the audience is

seeing.

Afterwards, between 00:35 – 00:38, the toilet flush takes place as the soundtrack stops. The flush, which is a diegetic hard smudgy sound, acts as a transition between the room and the bathroom. On the other hand, the disappearance of the music added melodrama to the scene by helping the filmmakers to “represent meaning through silence” (Hemmeter, 1996). Subsequently, the scene presents sharp and loud diegetic sounds of the door and the second part of the flush. Both of them have been previously modified with a subtle reverberation, which makes them wet sounds. Later, we can experience some of the foley effects illustrated in the scene such as the noise of the shower curtain as it gets closed.

Once inside, Marion opens her soap and prepares herself to have a shower. Both of the sounds, are diegetic and particularly loud. The water from the shower head becomes now the foreground sound of the picture. It aims to encapsulate the audience into the same environment Marion is in by recreating the soundscape one would experience when taking a shower. The sound of the water is loud, constant, defined, clear and in a way overwhelming. These characteristics help the audience to share the space Marion is in, making the scene more intense and personal to the spectators.

Later on, we see the killer entering the bathroom and opening the shower. The popular soundtrack of Bernard Herrmann plays once again when the curtain is moved, however the curtain has no sound this time. The musical recording, which masks the previous water sounds by being considerably louder, presents really high pitched notes that repeat one after the other rapidly and continuously. Therefore, the track creates a feeling of anxiety and uneasiness within the audience.

Afterwards, the killer starts to stab Marion as soon as the curtain is moved. Each of the cuts in the camera is accompanied by one or more stabbing sound effect. The stabbing sound, which is an acousmatic sound, resulted to be a foley effect of stabbing a casaba melon (sceneexamples’s channel, 2010), works greatly as a sharp, abrasive and almost metallic sound. Along the stabbing and Hermann’s soundtrack, the scene also displays the loud and angular screams of Marion as she tries to fight her aggressor back.

The following section, presents Marion’s painful death on the shower floor. It firstly gives a change in the tune of the score, making the notes much lower and slower in pace, which detonates the end of the murder. In addition, the scene exhibits the change of volume in the running water and the protagonist heavy breathing. Regarding the running water, it is, once again, the main sound effect in the picture. Additionally, it is possible to hear two diegetic dry sounds which correspond to the curtain getting broken by Marion and the impact her body makes against the floor.

The following sounds correspond to the loud gurgling of the drain which is quickly over-layered by the sound of the running water.

Next, we hear Norman’s voice as he yells “mother, oh god, mother, blood, blood”; his voice, is a very distant, reverbed, non-diegetic wet sound. Afterwards, we hear the soundtrack, which is non-diegetic, playing simultaneously along Norman’s figure in frame. The reason behind it, is a way to demonstrate that he is, indeed, the killer, hence why the same track takes part when the killer commits the crime as well as when Norman approaches the room.

To conclude, the shower scene presents a complex compilation of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. This extraordinary combination is one of the main reasons the scene stands out as one of the best throughout film history. It is important to remember that sound plays a major part in the craft of storytelling, allowing the filmmakers to convey emotions to moving images which results in a deeper and more dynamic experience to an

audience.