The Birds

The Birds

Plot Summary 

Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favour. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbour dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.

Opening scene

• The opening sequence of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds portrays different elements of the thriller genre. These include the opening scene being off the ordinary and a usual every day situation which would happen in real life as the main character goes to the pet shop to pick up a previously bought bird – something of the norm. 
• A man is introduced into the scene and requests a bird from the woman, they converse and he leaves saying he shall see her in court. This raises questions to the audience, a convention of the thriller genre.
• An enigma is introduced when the woman buys two love birds and takes them to the man’s apartment, where she then finds out he is on holiday, and then hunts him down to hand over the birds to him.
• There is no soundtrack in the opening sequence, which is odd for a thriller, as most thrillers contain some form of diegetic music behind the moving image. This makes the film seem more like an everyday scenario, which adds to the thriller convention because when something bad happens it will seem more surprising and shocking. 

                                             Conventions of a Thriller

Psycho

Psycho 

Plot Summary 

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane (Leigh) is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam (Gavin) in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman Bates (Perkins) who seems to be dominated by his mother. 

The Shower Scene

The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcocks 'Psycho' which Marion is killed is considered one of the most stunning and horrifying scenes of all time. It is this scene that makes Psycho worthy of inclusion on a list of top phobia-inducing films. Legions of fans claim that for many years following their first viewing of this film, they refused to take showers. It is difficult to prove the truth of this claim, but shower phobia is a legitimately documented phobia, and if any film moment could induce it, this would be the one.

The shower scene has long been studied in film classes as a preeminent example of masterful editing. The scene is highly unique, as the camera becomes the knife. It has been claimed that the knife never actually pierces the skin, but this is technically untrue. In three frames, the knife penetrates the skin just below the navel about ¼ of an inch. Regardless, the decision to shoot the scene in close-up from the point of view of the knife itself both limited the gore and made the scene much more personal to the audience than most on-screen attacks.