Psycho Image Analysis

This scene from Psycho (1960) is when we find out that it is not Norman’s mother committing the killings but Norman himself. Throughout the whole film we have been lead to believe that it is Norman’s mother who is killing everyone who arrives at their motel but we never actually see her. This picture in particular is very misleading if you have not watched the whole film. Just before this scene we witness Norman’s mother, dead, in the cellar and straight after we see Norman being caught and deprived of his phallic knife that he aims to kill Lila with. Just 3 years before Psycho, Ed Gein was arrested for a very similar scenario. The idea of a transvestite killer would have been very powerful to audiences in 1960 because it would have reminded them of a real life situation. The mise-en-scenne is also important in this scene Not only is the outside of the house a typical creepy location, but a cellar inside a big, old house adds to the creepiness and the feeling of isolation and claustrophobia. Throughout the whole film we assume that Norman would be the male hero in the end but it turns out that he is actually the psycho serial killer. This end to the narrative goes against Todorov’s ‘classical Hollywood narrative’ and how unhappy/open endings are a generic convention of horror movies. They leave the open chance of a sequel and ensure that people after watching the film feel slightly uneasy that the killer may still be out there.