Arbogasts attack image analysis Psycho 1960

This scene is the murder of the detective Arbogast, The first thing we get from this shot is that it’s a bird’s eye view; this is cleverly shot to hide the identity of Norman’s mother. The second thing we notice is that there are a lot of shadows in the shot due to the low key lighting. This is adding to the fact that the scene is trying to be creepy. The shadow from Norman pretending to be his mother looms over Arbogast which connotes him being swallowed in by the evil that is about to take place. We then see after this Arbogast get slashed in the face, for a 1960 thriller that is quite a bit of gore however it is still sticking to the Hays Code. The main shock of the scene is created through collision cutting, by going from a slow and quiet scene of Arbogast climbing up the stairs to the sudden loud music and quick violence when “Mother” attacks him.