Psycho Image Analyses (2)

 This is the scene in which we first meet Norman Bates. This scene is crucial for numerous reasons. It first establishes Norman as our antagonist and provides him with a perverse motive for the following murder scene. This is shown through low key lighting and the use of angles. The low angle shots extenuate his power and help build him as the powerful antagonist. There is also a good use of props/ setting here. The use of taxidermy initially freaks the audience bout while giving us some of his character traits. It is also clear that Hitchcock has used Janet Staiger’s audience studies when selecting his antagonist. The film was created very soon after the Ed Gein story became big in America, and from initial research into the murders, it appears they both share certain character traits, such as be reclusive and being surrounded by an isolated area, also typical in the horror genre. The hysteria caused from Gein would also be good for profits as the prospective audience would want to get inside the head of a ‘psycho’.