Scene: Taxidermy talk between Marion and Norman
Genre is considered to be very impure. This is because many movies can't be classified as one genre. Those movies usually have themes that relate to other genres. An example of a combination of genres is in the movie Shawn of The Dead, as the movie combines comedy and zombie together in order to form an alternate genre called zombie comedy. We can back this up with the help of Altman, as he mentions that, "gentrification is the action of placing adjectives to the original genre of a film" (Altman). Within the films in hand, Psycho is considered to be a comedy-horror genre because of comic relief scenes acted out by the characters. We can see that in the movie, Alfred Hitchcock's motive is to frame horror and comedy into the cinematic shots. Psycho classifies as a horror-comedy because of the comic relief placed in between the tense scenes, and the combination of Hitchcock's shot angles or perspectives that tease the audience's expectations of the movie's seriousness or comedic factor.
The comic relief scenes are intelligently placed within the shots in order to influence the intensity of the scene. The scene I chose to analyze is the part of the film when Marion and Norman has the conversation of private traps and taxidermy. Within the scene, the audience can constantly see Norman changing from one expression to another during the conversation. It's interesting because the change of expressions influences the suspense and the creepiness of the scene. It's even creepier that Norman is able to keep a smile when he talked about taxidermy and private traps with Marion.
In this scene, Norman is seen with a happy expression while talking about taxidermy.
Alfred Hitchcock once mentioned to a TV programme Monitor in 1964 that he created a film that isn't as serious as he thought. Hitchcock claims that the audience took the film too seriously when watching the movie and escalated that seriousness to an extremity during uncanny scenes such as the conversation between Marion and Norman or the shower scene. With this, the film became a historical genre of horror due to the influence of the audience's taking of the film. Originally, Hitchcock makes sure that film included bits of comic-relief in order to either relieve tension or escalate the suspense.
Using the pictures above, the audience can take Norman's expression as either added creepiness or suspense. It's uncanny to see a person make a smile when talking about stuffing animals. While the expression and the low angle shot of the scene add that suspense of whether Marion might have the same as the stuffed birds or not. Another interesting point is that the low-angled shot makes it feel as if Norman is innocent, even though he is not right in the head. The audience can still probably have a small laugh when Norman changes to a childish expression after talking about stuffing animals. In the end, many scenes would involve the characters encouraging comic-relief after intense scenes of suspense or surprise, and Hitchcock's decisions over the editing of the scenes would create a comedic effect that would classify the film as part of the comedy-horror genre.
Works Cited
Altman, Rick. Gentrification. (n.d.):
62-68. Web.
Hitchcock, Alfred. Psycho. Dir. 1960. Film.
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