Crazy Good

The opening credits to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho are very interesting and informative about what the audience should expect in the film. Many of the credits are off centered and the music is very unsettling. The fact that the credits were off centered indicates that we are going to be dealing with someone mentally unstable, Norman Bates. The eerie music indicates that something tragic is going to happen, this being the death of Nancy.

The sequence involving Nancy’s flee makes very good use of metaphorical props. The metaphorical props specific to the car lot scene are the two men. Not only are they impeding her exodus, they are part of the gender that has held her and all women back at this time. During this sequence, Hitchcock creatively uses the voiceover to inform the audience what is occurring in Nancy’s world that Nancy is not present for. The use of the close-up shots of Nancy as she is driving demonstrates that Nancy is trapped and doomed since she began her flight. The other indicator of Nancy’s fate is the eerie music that has been continually playing throughout the entire film. No matter how good things may appear to be the music is always the same. This could possibly serve as a warning to the audience that no matter how good things may seem to be, you must always be ready for the worst because life is unpredictable. While on the topic of Nancy’s fate, it is interesting that she was murdered in her attempt to flee. Had she just been caught by the police, she would have just been sent to jail. Instead she receives a much worst punishment. This is possibly because it was not just a robbery but it was also a breach of trust with her job and boss. After having worked there for 10 years as her boss indicates in one of the voiceovers, she decides to steal from the company. Also she could have just been killed by a psycho because he was a psycho and not because she actually deserved to die.