Psycho, the shower scene

The shower scene, of the thriller film Psycho.

The scene starts with Marion Crane, one of the films main characters, doing some calculations on a piece of paper, probably to do with the money she steals at the start of the film. The camera angle is a mid-shot throughout most of the part, with panning to keep her in the scene without breaking the shot as she walks to the bathroom.

In the bathroom she disposes of the paper to hide the evidence and goes for a shower, its a low-angle shot keeping the attention on her feet as she gets into the shower.

In the shower, almost all the shots are close-ups, this emphasizes the feeling of intimacy with the audience and pulls them into the situation the victim is in, as well as concentrating on what the victim is seeing with numerous POV shots of the shower head.

After this, the angle switches to mid-shot of the shower, you see Marion in front of the shower curtain, but behind that the camera pans to show the door opening and a figure entering the room, Marion unaware. It switches to a close-up of this new character, the murderer who we deduced to be a woman because of the finger nails and hair, swiping the shower curtain aside brandishing a knife posed to strike, then a close up of the knife being plunged forward towards the victim.

A reaction shot of Marion screaming is shown, this is a close-up, to concentrate attention directly on he screaming, then a shot of the knife plunging through the stream of water at the victim, this is a POV from the victim to show the audience what Marion is seeing.

There's a brief struggle, Marion trying to fight off the attacker to no avail. This is an interesting shot, because of the angle we can see the attackers face but the shower rail is positioned so it blocks out her eyes. Shots are quick here, about 30-40 in this scene, this empathises the speed and intensity of the scene.

There are then clips of a rolling storm, sounds of thunder and rain. This builds an atmosphere of anger and violence, but the storm could also represent a cleaning as the murderer kills Marion, a thief, this doubles up with her killing Marion in the shower, a clean and pure place.

As Marion dies, she reaches out and grabs the shower curtain as the attacker disappears, this represents her struggling to hold onto life as she dies. The hooks holding the shower curtain break and she falls out of the shower and collapses on the floor, her blood draining away down the plug hole.

After this, there's an unusual shot of her blood mixing with the water and draining down the plug hole, this then fades into a shot of her dilated iris, rotating outwards to show her face as she lies on the bathroom floor, mimicking the water flowing down the plug hole, as her life fades away.