Psycho (1960) Still analysis 3

 Here, we see the scene of ‘mother’ killing Arbogast. This scene has also has all the generic conventions of horror in it, as written by Thomas Schatz in his book Hollywood Genres (1982). Looking at the mise-en-scene, we see the use of a creepy and enclosed location, an old fashioned mansion in the middle of nowhere helps make the audience feel uncomfortable to watch it. The use of collision cutting is also very important for this scene, as it starts by Arbogast slowly walking to the house and up the stairs, to the then fast paced killing of him, partnered with a parallel, uncomfortable and harsh stabbing soundtrack, really emphasises the mood of the scene. The use of the bird’s eye view is also very clever as it creates an uneasy angle for the audience to view the scene from, but also allows the identity/ unveiling of mother to be kept a secret. This makes us question if it really is Norman’s mother as she is able to rapidly move through the hall way to overpower a grown man. Looking at the themes, we can associate the fear of death & violence to this scene as Arbogast is killed, and the suspense leading up to it gets the audience on the edge of their seat.