Scene Analysis - Psycho

Psycho: The Shower Scene

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) stands as an iconic masterpiece of modern cinema, with the famous shower scene becoming a true moment of film history.  This scene is one of the most well-known and commonly referenced moments in horror and suspense using various factors of editing, sound design and composition to portray the true terror of murder, so much so that in 1998 Gus Van Sant made an almost shot-for-shot remake of the entire film.

The scene itself is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long and occurs 44 minutes into the film.  Up until this point the story of Marion is full of brief glimpses into her world leading the viewer down the road as to whether she will get away with her plan of stealing money from her boss or will she be caught, however the shower scene immediately changes the mood, tone and pace of the entire film, turning it from a story of robbery to a story of psychological horror.  This shocking twist so early in the film caught many viewers off guard further enhancing the mood of suspense and establishes a new and pronounced fear that echoes throughout the rest of the film.

Unlike the rest of the film the shower scene is a multitude of quick and furious edits, 55 cuts in just over 3 minutes, each expertly devised to whip the audience into a heightened frenzy of fear, anticipation, shock, and suspense.  The scene can be viewed as three separate sections, divided by the content of action.  The first part of the scene consists of ten shots with an average length of 4.3 seconds each.  These consist of Marion getting into the shower, closing the curtain and turning on the water.  There is a noticeable lack of music or sound in the first three shots before Marion turns on the shower and closes the curtain.  The running water serves as the basis for the sound-scape for the entire scene.  This encloses the viewer inside the shower both visibly and audibly with the sound of the running water overpowering all other sounds.  The next seven shots show Marion as she washes, allowing the viewer to adjust to an equilibrium of familiarity tainted with unease.  The last shot of the first section, in classic Hitchcock style, shows the viewer what the protagonist cannot see, using an over the shoulder shot and a long zoom the audiences eye is drawn to the ominous arrival of a dark figure behind the drawn curtain of the shower. 

This shot leads us into the second section of the scene, where the looming character behind the curtain begins their vicious attack.  It is at this point and further heightened by the loud screaming of Marion that the infamous and much recognized music begins throwing the viewer from a state of suspense to a state of terror.  This section of the scene consists of 33 cuts in a brief 21 seconds, alternating between the frenzied composition of Marion’s reactions within the frame (close-ups of her mouth screaming, hands moving in and out of frame, her head turning frantically from side to side) to the powerful statue-like and silhouetted figure of the attacker, who’s only movement is that of the rhythmical, robotic like stabbing motion.  This stabbing action is accompanied by the almost exaggerated ripping sounds of the knife entering and exiting the skin.  These sounds enhance the unseen brutality of the knife actually entering the skin within the imagination of the viewer.  This section sees the climax of the action within the scene and the extremely fast cutting between POV shots and extreme close-ups, along with the frenzied music and the unique sound effects, makes this a mutli-sensory experience of brutality that Hitchcock wanted to portray in a simple and effective manner.

The third section of the scene consists of 11 shots lasting 1 minute and 45 seconds.  These rather longer cuts mirror that of the first section, and bookend the scene with the inevitable death of Marion as she slides down the white tiles of the shower, her attacker turning and fleeing.  These shots comprise of many close-ups of Marion’s hand as it slowly slides down the tiles before grabbing in vain at the shower curtain...her last attempt at leaving the shower before succumbing to death.  As the curtain tears away the music finally drains out leaving only the sound of the running water, again mirroring the first section of the scene.  The blood washes down the drain in an symbolic moment as her life comes to an end.  The final cut in the film is a cross-dissolve between the drain and her unblinking eye before panning across the bathroom, out the door and resting on a view of the Bates house.

In Gus Van Sant’s 1998 version of Psycho the shower scene is again the pivotal point in the film.  His almost shot-for-shot remake of the scene also contains these three separate sections within the scene, however lacks a certain connection between the viewer and the protagonist and certainly suffers from being shot in colour, along with intercutting shots of fast moving clouds and dilating eyeballs into the fast paced stabbing section of the scene.  Van Sant also follows more modern and conventional modes of film-making by showing the stab wounds on Marion’s back along with blood smearing along the white tiles of the shower.  The remake of the scene does convey the same terror and fear as Hitchcock’s original, however, it lacks the subtlety, smoothness and relies far too heavily on spoon feeding to the viewer the horror of the scene.  Hitchcock trusted his audience