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FMS 360

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Hitchcock’s shifting of the film ‘Pyscho’ from a tense thriller to a Gothic horror film

Indeed, Psycho is one of Hitchcock’s greatest films, well-known due to its success. It is a superb

shocking thriller. Gothic films have a set of identifiable elements grounded in particular visual

codes that constitute the sing system, the language, of Gothic films.

Among the things that shift Psycho to a Gothic horror film include the house. It reveals a myriad

things, to great in-depth. Though that house is bathed in black and white, it gives in an

omnipresence hence informing the film. The location of the house is also important. Being high

on a hill, it imposes a looming dominance nature, highlighting the relationship between Norman

Bates and his mother. It seems Norman finds it difficult to escape traps, bringing to mind the

essence of the house. Additionally, it may symbolic a strong code of morals and values of an era

of complete contrasts to the present. This is when the house is compared to the Bates Motel. It

shows the isolation from the society of those who live in Gothic houses even in literature. This is

due to seclusion due to changes occurring as times moves. The house symbolizes those who

grasp onto their beliefs even with the immense transformation that has come.

Hitchcock was a master in exploiting the use of dark secrets for horror films. In Gothic, secrets

run dark and deeps. Their exposures may reveal conflict, trauma or anxiety. The dark secrets in

Psycho are evident in lascivious and sexualized way, in the illicit affair between Sam Loomis
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and Marion Crane. Another Gothic feature is the corpses and corruption. There is the gothic

trope of death and decay of the mind that comes by corruption. Additionally, insanity and

madness are being used by Hitchcock, for instance in the science in the cellar. The audience

believes that Norman is a shy yet pleasant enough young man. The use of the heroine, Marion as

the heroine for Psycho, is an important gothic feature. Marion places and finds herself in danger,

but she’s a breaker of convention seeing independence by finding her life’s happiness. The

atmosphere and mood underpinned by the split titles and the anxious musical score heightens the

tension. This weighs down the audience, peering in to the despaired and hopeless conversations

of the half-undressed couple. Norman say to Marion- “Gee, sorry. I didn’t hear ya in all this

rain” (Hart, 29)

“Exploitation” film

Exploitation film, as the name suggest, refers to a film that which tries to succeed (particularly

financially) by exploiting contemporary tends, garish content or niche genres. Examples of some

genres that exploited such film are biker films, Blaxploitation, cannibal films and carsploitation.

The ‘Night of the Living Dead’ fits into the category by the fact that it utilized the political and

racial strife of the 60s America, marking a transition in horror (Mathijs, 16). The cemetery and

the farmhouse scenes would not have made it past censors just a few years prior under the

Production Code.

Works Cited

Hart, Adam Charles. A cinema of wounded bodies: Sensational abjection and the spaces of

modern horror. The University of Chicago, 2014.

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Mathijs, Ernest. ‘Naughty,’‘nasty,’‘culty’: Exploitation film. Routledge, 2019.