The Psyche of Norman Bates in Psycho was the Platform for Psychological Horror

Horror is explained as a film genre that evokes reaction by playing on the audience’s fears, and terror of the unknown. In the mid 1900s this genre of film was mainly expressed through its subgenre fantasies, where men and women battled the supernatural ranging from monsters like Frankenstein to vampires such as Dracula. However, that all changed with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho”. This film revolutionized the genre of Horror by adding the subgenre of psychology to it. Hitchcock’s use of mise en scene, and language in the parlor scene of the film expresses how the monster came from within the psychosis of Norman Bates head, thus forming the subgenre of psychological horror.

Firstly, it should be noted that during a time where color movies existed, Hitchcock decided to film his movie entirely in black and white. A subtle move yet executed perfectly for the audience to focus more on the content of the story by concentrating their attention on what’s in the frame. Color serves as a distraction, though it might enhance the story’s aesthetics, it diverted the attention from the story.

The mise en scene in regards to the parlor scene with Norman and Marion shows the genre of horror at play beginning with the background music. In the start of the scene the music plays dauntingly with a slow buildup as though something is going to happen even though it does not, and it’s here the audience is subjected to the point of view shot with each time Marion looks at one of Norman’s stuffed birds on the wall. The music heightens with each direct view of the animal building a sense of suspense in the viewer. One might begin to wonder that the bird’s portrayal is to express the fate of the protagonist by the end of the movie. The lighting of the room should also be noted in the scene. Though its black and white there are several other scenes where light is employed to a magnitude that it brightens the scenes frame. However, the light in the parlor scene is very dim and exudes an eerie feel, which is typical of a horror film to have their audience in a state of uncertainty. Lastly, the visual depiction of Norman’s stature being bizarre or awkward is a common horror film motif. Hitchcock presents him with both traits when he reveals his interest in taxidermy, and in general his overall demeanor. 

With that being said, Norman’s disposition highlights the language used in this scene. Norman says to Marion, “We’re all in our private traps. Clamped in them, and none of us can never get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air. Only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch”.  Hitchcock evidently is explaining Norman’s internal misery where he feels trapped in a psychological hell as he indirectly tells the audience he tries to “scratch and claw himself out“. Furthermore, this explains the subgenre of psychology morphing with horror because Hitchcock is voicing Norman’s mental psyche. Another important line Norman say’s to Marion is when he speaks about his mother. After Marion asks him why he does not go away, he responds, “She will be alone up there, her fire would go out. It would be cold and damp like a grave.” Nevertheless, Hitchcock is showing that Norman has lost his power of rationality. His mother is dead in actuality, yet he acts as if she is alive in his head, and makes up feelings for her. It is as though his mother is an alter ego of his. Nonetheless, Hitchcock shows the manifestation of Norman’s pessimism and its relevance to psychoanalysis because it expresses his shortcomings as he reverses notions of activity and passivity between his mother and his psyche. Author Robin Wood further explains why the use of language is important aspect of this scene in his article” ‘Psycho’ Hitchcock’s Film’s Revisited”; he writes, “It is part of the essence of the film to make us feel the continuity between the normal and the abnormal: between the compulsive behavior of Marion and the psychotic behavior of Norman Bates” (145).  This explains the psychological aspect of the conversation Norman has with Marion as well as clarifying the reason he frequently stammers with his speech and the flow of his words.

In essence, Hitchcock illustrates how Norman’s psychosis was useful in the emergence of the subgenre psychological horror. Norman was the perfect candidate to show a different side of horror where it all surfaced in his mind. Through the use of mise en scene and language, Hitchcock explains that Horror may be the genre of “Psycho”, but as Rick Altman writes in his article, “Gentrification”, “When a genre reaches the saturation point…It recreates the circumstances out of which new genres are generated” (62), concluding the idea that with the additive influence of other concepts, genre becomes subjective and its fluidity is shown because with the incorporation of new ideas it forms a subgenre, and the cycle continues over and over again from there.

  

Works Cited

Altman, Rick. "Gentrification." (n.d.): 62-68. Web.

Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. 1960.

Wood, Robin. "Psycho Hitchcock's Film's Revisted." (1989): 142-51. Web.