... of this is the fact that, although unheard of in a mainstream Hollywood film, the star (Janet Leigh) is murdered in the first half of Psycho. Audiences accustomed to the traditional narrative style wanted a character they could consistently identify with, yet Hitchcock denied them that comfort by killing off the character they had briefly identified with and proceeding to align the viewer ... the appearance of ordinariness and undermine previous conventions. In addition to its unusual content, Psycho was produced in an unconventional manner. Although in 1960 the majority of Hollywood fi...

• Word Count: 2510
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... if she is aware of the viewing audience she reaches out for help, clasps onto the shower curtain, and slumps forward to her death. Hitchcock then uses some special editing techniques to finalize the murder, and address the shock of the audience. He cuts to the shower head, and then to her legs in the tub, where the blood from her ... was that this final sequence of shots, similar to the first, lasting for forty seconds, and consisting of six editing cuts, one less than the first. Hitchcock has created a mini-narrative with this shower scene made up by a long introduction, a long conclus...

• Word Count: 936
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate