Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, was released on September 8th, 1960. This film is a horror, mystery, thriller that features: Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), and Janet Leigh (Marion Crane). This was Hitchcock’s most successful film, it made approximately $32 million at the North American box office when it was first released. This film defied a lot of the social norms at the time, “Psycho was a black-and-white film made at a time when Hitchcock typically worked in color and when moviegoers typically expected color” (Spiegel). Moviegoers were also not allowed to enter the theater late. Hitchcock tried his best to make this film stand out. This was also the last Hitchcock film that was nominated
The shower scene is not the only instance where there is an eerie silence before the dissonant strings enter. Right before the shower scene is the parlor scene. The parlor scene is full of symbolism that does not have music accompaniment. Norman is comparing the way Marion Crane is eating to that of a bird while the room is covered with taxidermy birds and other small animals. Norman begins to talk about his mother and her illness and Marion questions why she’s not “someplace.” Norman says, “You mean an institution? A madhouse?” The second the word “madhouse” leaves Norman’s lips, creepy music begins to play quietly in the background. As Norman describes madhouses and the people that inhabit them, the music gets louder. The dialogue that is paired with this quiet music is very important to the rest of the film and the silence that occurs beforehand makes it that much more powerful. This scene is also very important because it symbolizes the transition of the protagonists. At this point, Hitchcock has been focusing on Marion and her struggles in life but now it is switching to Norman. The music used to be frantic and paranoid, symbolizes how Marion was feeling, but now it was quiet and suspicious because no one really knew how Norman ticked yet. The score in Psycho has a way of creating an image for the viewers as
It does not matter whether the viewers’ eyes are open or closed because the can still feel the suspense and insanity in the atmosphere. At the time this movie was released, most Hollywood films paired violins with romance and this was one of the first films to pair strings with the polar opposite. Herrmann used the strings to make people feel deep emotions right down to their nerve endings. It was a musical representation of what the characters were thinking and feeling throughout the film. “The marriage of Alfred Hitchcock's movie and Bernard, or Benny, Herrmann's music is seen as a perfect union, the peak of the collaboration between the English-born director who moved to Hollywood and the composer from New York City who lived his later years in Britain” (Siegel). I think that these outstanding duo are the reason why this film is so popular today and it will always remain a classic in the Film Music