Psycho is hailed as one of the most famous, and infamous films in modern American cinema. It gave critically acclaimed director Alfred Hitchcock a name and redefined him as one of the best. It has managed to withstand the tests of time, which is evident in its recent remake. It was a great achievement for its unique combination of horror in a psychical and psychological way. Editing plays an enormous role in the success of a film. This is particularly well demonstrated in Psycho, where it was used in a bold and outrageous way by use of montage editing. .
One scene specifically stands out in this film for its brilliant editing techniques. The shower scene is definitely the film's most famous and critically acclaimed. It is definitely the one scene that anyone who has seen this film will never forget. In this scene, an innocent and unsuspecting Marion Crane is bathing in the bathroom of her motel room. The camera shows a shadow entering the bathroom; at precisely the perfect moment music is added to add that extra dramatic effect. The camera then shifts to the shower curtain, when you can see the profile of a woman's figure showering. The murder itself is never directly shown. The entire scene lasts for 40 seconds, and using fast-cut editing, 78 pieces of film were used, 70 different camera positions, which resulted in 34 shots. These shots were edited in an attempt to create a scene of horror and violence. Alfred Hitchcock and the films editor George Tomasini created a scene where the audience was left to imagine the brutal violence, making a much more intense scene. In total, the entire effect was creating by using four different scenes: shots of Marion struggling with her attacker, shots of her face and hands, and shots of the darkened killer stabbing towards the camera, and finally the gut-retching scene of blood pooling in the bathtub, then flowing down the drain. .
This technique of editing which Hitchcock and Tomasini primarily used is called montage editing.
