Historical and Institutional Influences - Hitchcock and "Psycho"

Ever since the success of first feature-length "talkie" (The Jazz Singer), Hollywood became obsessed with making more and more films with sound. Although the directors and cinematographers were opposed to the idea, the studio heads were more interested in making money by providing a new experience that the audience was fascinated by. Although Hitchcock was walking these "talkies" since 1929, he too was not for the idea. Film was only a visual medium, but with the introduction of sound films began to get boring because of the little effort needed to be put into a "talkie." "Most films, once they could rely on the microphone, became what he called 'pictures of people talking.' Hitchcock stalwartly resisted this development. Throughout his career, he preferred to convey information wordlessly..." (461). In his films he relied on using the camera to tell the story rather than the actors who he did not exactly have a good relationship. Hitchcock treated actors as his puppets unlike other directors who depended on their actors to give a good performance and possibly even improv. Hitchcock was one of the first kind of directors who wanted full control of their productions. For this reason as well, he decided to produce Psycho on his own and with his own money. This sort of investment in his new creation gave him all of the authority he could ask for. He became the master artist. "After all, the film screen, like the canvas of a painting, is flat. But just as a slow walk around a piece of sculpture will reveal its volume, the movement of the camera, or of actors, makes us aware of space" (464). Just like any art mediums, he got the final call to make the creative decisions for the better of the film. For example, he decided to shoot completely in Black and White not only for the cost, but also to get away from the new censorship being placed on movie. He could make the movie as gory as he pleased while still being cost-effective and still having Paramount Pictures distribute the film.

With the release of Psycho, the world saw the rise and popularization of the slasher genre. Hitchcock was a visionary. "So fruitful was he that a single film could spawn an entire genre, as Psycho helped create the
modern horror film" (458). Although the killer's kill-count is not too great, the way it is presented is what makes Psycho a slasher. First of all, the plot revolves around the audience questioning who actually committed the crime. At some times the audience feels like the killer is evident, but then Hitchcock throws a curve ball and therefore making the audience ponder even more. Secondly, from the shower scene we see that the killer's murder weapon is a large knife, which would not only kill the victim but assure that the victim feels the pain. Also, some characters (Norman Bates) seem to have some sort of psychological issues. Not only that, but the ending of the film is a twist. These were some of the early formulas to create a film that can be considered a slasher film. Hitchcock also set the bar for slashers with his visual story telling. He became the master of suspense because he knew how to build tension with merely the music and what is not shown to the audience. Today, where movies would use the cliched "jump scare" Hitchcock would let the tension build up and keep the audience on their toes, never giving them a moment to relax because he wanted the audience to get inside the characters' heads. Today and even a decade after the film's release, Psycho  serves as a great example of visual masterpieces for film students and the average audience as well.


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film
hitchcock_canonical_hitchcock.pdf