Review on 'Psycho' 1960

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Joseph Stefano (screenplay) and Robert Blach (novel)

Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles

A Phoenix office worker Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is fed up and unhappy how life has treated her. At lunchtime breaks she meets up with her lover; but they cannot marry because he has debts to pay delaying more opportunities in her life. As she has been working at her workplace for ten years they trust her to handle a client’s money to put in the bank, but $40,000 to anyone is a tempting opportunity and she takes the money and runs away. On her journey she becomes tired and stops off at a motel off the highway but little does she know what goes on at this motel. This is where the story takes off and the horror is slowly revealed!

The external threat in this film is a mad man who appears to be normal but has a deranged mind!

“Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing frequent action”

Examples:

Shower scene, Marion goes about her own business vulnerable and then the ‘psycho’ takes advantage and murders her there and then.

Deposal of the car, evidence and body- will it sink or is it going to stay?

The staircase scene, where the private detective goes upstairs only to be greeted with the stabbing sensation of a knife.

When Lila hides in the fruit cellar and there’s what appears to be an old woman parched on a chair which turns out to be a corpse and the real ‘psycho’ killer is behind her ready to strike! Will she be the next victim or saved just in time?

“Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers”

Red herrings:

We think that mother is an old sick woman committing the murders when it turns out mother is a corpse and didn’t actually exist throughout the film/story. This takes the viewer out of their comft zone, if she didn’t do it who is the real ‘psycho?’

Also the shower scene, the early exit of Janet Leigh’s character came as a shock as Hitchcock tricked us into thinking that she was the main character.

Suspense:

When Lila goes to the house and is looking around, not only is she out in the unknown but there is a killer at large which we as the viewer are constantly waiting to strike.

Cliff hanger:

Right at the end of the film we find out the murders are committed by Norman (Perkins) and the psychiatric doctor is debating if he should be charged/blamed for the murders committed as he is both Norman and “mother.” Will “mother” get away with it? We never know...

“Villain driven plot”

The villain we could say was “mother” as that was the person committing the murders but as “mother” and Norman are the same person, who is the real person to blame?

MacGuffin:

The MacGuffin in the film was the money, without the money Marion wouldn’t have run away and the detective and her sister wouldn’t have followed leads up to the motel. As the story develops we concentrate and care more for the characters fearing for their lives as they come to face to face with Marion’s killer; but at the end of the film characters question where the money is and we find out it’s in the car boot in the swamp.

So what makes this film one of the best horror/thrillers?

Well for start people who haven’t even seen the film know of the famous shower murder scene and the screeching music when the killer strikes. Bernard Herrmann’s strident discordant music is used in other movies to denote the appearance of a ‘psycho’ the music is quite iconic as well as keeps the view pinned to their seat as it helps to enhance the tension and suspense of the scene.

The brilliance of the scene lies in the editing, frame-by-frame leaves it up to the viewers’ imagination.

In the shower murder scene for blood they used chocolate syrup! Also Janet Leigh apparently stated after filming that scene she never took a shower again and only bathed! Another actor Hitchcock has shocked and tormented this is one of the reasons why Hitchcock’s films are so iconic and impressionable because they’re realistic and play on people’s fears. In my opinion, and other film critics, I think this is the best film of Hitchcock’s works and has helped to inspire other ‘psycho’ themed movies that we see today showing his influence still being strong on the thriller industry.

Review of 'The Birds' 1963

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Daphne du Maurier (story) Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

A wealthy San Francisco socialite peruses a potential boyfriend to a small Northern Californian town that slowly takes a turn for the worst when birds of all species suddenly begin to attack! In this film the threat isn’t a group of foreign spies, like in ‘North by Northwest,’ but and external threat of nature.   

“Fast pacing frequent action”

Examples:

Birthday party where the children are attacked and forced to cut the party short and go inside the house.

School attack as the birds chase the children into town and the children have to go on forward to the hotel for safety.

Café scene.

House attack as our main characters are trying to keep the birds from breaking into the house.

Suspense:

When Hedren is waiting outside the school and one by one more and more birds come onto the children’s playground behind her she looks back there’s one bird, looks back again and there’s an army!

The film is again a villain driven plot being more of a threat as there are more birds than humans.

There is no music in the film to create more suspense and tension so we don’t know when the birds are going to attack! The only music there is in the film is use of mixtratinium and the children singing in the classroom scene before the birds attacked the children. 

There were a number of endings considered like for example the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds. The actually ending of the film however, didn’t actually say ‘the end’ to imply an unending terror.

Effects

370 set shots, the final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed shots.

The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds in the attic took a week to shoot. The birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads and she was actually got cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots. This scene in particular was the main cause that Tippi Hedren was in therapy for years!

The premiere

When audiences left the UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London they were greeted by the sound of screeching birds hidden in the trees!

Review of 'North by Northwest'

North by Northwest (1959)

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies; he is pursued by them and has to go on the run in order to survive whilst claiming back his identity.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Ernest Lehman

Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

In what ways is this a model thriller?

“Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action…”

Examples:

In the car

UN stabbing

Train

Bus stop

Auction scene

Café scene

At the villains hideout

Cliff-hanger (literally)

“A resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains”

Hero:witty, calm, charming, attractive, smart, panics at times and gets slightly flustered

Villian:reserved, smart, incharge/has power

Suspense:bus stop scene.

When Roger Thornhill gets off the buss he’s left in a remote-desert looking place with no one insight. He waits for awhile and spots a plane fertilising some crops. A man appears on the other side of the road on the other bus stop, Thornhill thinks that’s Mr Kaplan, so he goes over only to find out that that’s not Kaplan just an ordinary man waiting for the bus. The man then gets on the bus and when the bus leaves and no one’s in sight Thornhill is then attacked by the plane from earlier, he has to try and avoid this plane and try to survive in order to get help from on-passers.

Red herring:Eva Marie Saint’s character.

When we first meet her on the train she seems like one of the good guys then at the trainstation she makes a call and confirs with Van dame’s right hand man which makes us suspect her and think she’s helping out Van Dame. But we later find out that she was working for the government as their ‘inside man’ and she was good all along.

Cliffhanger:Cliff hanger scene.

The scene is left with Eve Kendall hanging off the cliff (mount Rushmore) for dear life with Thornhill trying to pull her up but looks likee he’s struggling himself to hold on. Then the scene skips to them being married on the train, maybe, home speeding into a tunnel.

“Villian driven plot” Villian in charge throughout the movie, until the end, and throws obstacles in the way which the hero has to react to.

Examples:

When they get Thornhill drunk set him up in the car when he goes for a little drive and theres times we think he’s gonna crash or drive off a cliff.

The UN stabbing, when Thornhill is talking to the real Mr Townsend and then one of Van Dame’s spies murders Mr townsend to keep him quiet before he reveals any valuble information.

On the train Thornhill has to go into hiding because he’s now a fugative and at times is nearly caught by the police but manages to hide. He also bribes one of porters to borrow his clothes and leaves the trainstation unnoticed…

MacGuffin

The MacGuffin is a plot element that drives the story on, everyone has to believe it’s important. The main characters are willing to do whatever to kill or protect the object to keep hold of it, regardless of what the MacGuffin may be. The MacGuffin itself is open to the audience’s interpretation; and is highly important to the plot. The MacGuffin could be: money, power, survival, a threat or something totally unexplained.

The MacGuffin is the central focus at the start of the film but as the film develops the MacGuffin loses its importance, as the characters and their struggles/motivations develop. But the MacGuffin comes back into the film towards the end; but and be forgotten as the main focus is on the characters. As Hitchcock said himself “as to what that object is specifically is the audience don’t care.”

Coursework Details

The brief: Must include...

Ø  The titles and opening of a new fiction film in the thriller genre to last a maximum of two minutes

Ø  The coursework will count as 50% of the course

Ø  Marks are awarded for demonstrating excellence in the following criteria:

Holding a shot steady

Framing a shot

Using variety of shot distances

Shooting material appropriate to the task set

Recipe for a thriller!

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often over lapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing frequent action and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains.
Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. The genre is flexible and can engage the audience through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political tensions. Hitchcock said "Thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like."

Welcome!

Welcome to my 'thriller' blog. Be discussing Hithcock's recipe to an effective thriller and analysising this in his films, and discussing ideas for my 'thriller'  coursework. Xx