Psycho image analysis

This is the opening title scene from PSYCHO. It is the scene in which it introduces the film. The small, pure white text on a black screen shows that there is more bad then good. The text is also distorted which gives of the fact it’s all in your head, which works well being that it is a psychological horror. The text also represents Norman’s split personality and schizophrenia which links to the real life serial killer Ed Gein who this film is based on. Ed Gein was an American murderer and body snatcher. . Ed Gein confessed to killing two women one in 1954 and another in 1957. His crimes were committed around his hometown of Plainfield. The first frame we see just the words PSYCHO which are paused for a while. This then changes into quickly animated montages of the word going distorted. This connotes how quick Norman’s actions change, from being nice to revealing his real (or at least his mother's) true self. The parallel music helps to back up this scene of introducing it as a horror. The instruments that build up the music behind the opening scene are part of the string section this helps to build the tension because the instruments make quite a creepy feeling.