The bird’s eye view on this image creates a dramatic
effect as the audience get to see the action from an unsettlingly odd angle.
There is restricted narration used as we cannot see the character’s faces
because Hitchcock didn’t want mother’s face to be revealed. This scene relies
heavily on editing and cinematography, conforming to Hitchcock’s auteur style of
well edited scenes. There is a medium close up of Arbogast’s face as he walks
slowly up the stairs, almost a feeling of invasion of personal space. Seeing
his strained facial expression also generates tension and uncertainty as to
what he shall find. The camera follows him up to the landing, drawing us
further into the scene as if it was a handheld camera, and then we see a bird’s
eye view of mother waiting with a knife; depicting a phallic symbol as she
foregoes to slash him to his death.
During this scene, Hitchcock uses collision cutting as
it changes from a slow montage of Arbogast walking up the stairs, to a quick
montage of him being stabbed. The camera continues to track him as he falls
down the stairs with blood on his face. Mother rushes down after him and
endures to repeatedly stab him again to make sure he dies. Again, we still do
not see mother’s face but view the action from behind and see a close up of the
knife as it is raised in the air to proceed to stab him. Restricted narration
is also used here as we do not see the body of Arbogast but just hear him
scream. This clever technique can sometimes be worse than actually seeing the
violence as the audience are forced to imagine the gory details themselves. The
Hays Code was still in place at the time Psycho was made, however
Hitchcock pushed the boundaries and added body horror not only in this scene,
but also in the infamous shower scene, helping to make the film a massive
success.
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