Psycho starts off with a woman wanting to marry a man who does not have the money to make the marriage happen - so she steals money and then runs away (the MacGuffin of the film), with . Unbeknownst, she is murdered by a deranged man in the hotel she spends the night in, and her lover and sister set out to uncover the truth behind her "mysterious" disappearance.
The director of the film is Alfred Hitchcock. It's writers are Joseph Stefano (screnplay) and Robert Bloch (novel). It's stars are Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.
The film has several characteristics of a thriller. The threat is from what appears to be a normal man, but it turns out he has gone mad from his mother's death.
There is also fast pacing, frequent action: the shower scene and the staircase scene (Arbogast's death) are examples. There is also suspense, and red herrings; we were led to believe that the film would be centred around Marion, however her death in the middle of the film leaves the audience shocked and clueless. In fact, Hitchcock was determined to keep the audience thrilled throughout the film, and he wanted to make extra sure by doing things such as having no advance screenings, and no one was also let into the film if it had already started. At the end of the film was a trailer from Hitchcock telling the audience not to give the plot away to anyone else, to keep new audiences in for the ride. The music score was used effectively to build up tension (unlike in 'The Birds', where tension was built via the silence). However it could be argued that there was no antagonist in this film, as it is not Norman's fault that he has gone mad.
A key scene in this film was the shower scene; it's a very famous sequence, with it's musical score often being used to insinuate tension by other films, shows, etc.
The scene also has some key parts, such as the killer's identity not being seen, as well as the knife only ever seen to cut skin once. Much of the detail of Marion's murder was left to the imagination of the audience, which added to the tension.
The Birds (1963) is a horror/thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It's writers are Daphne Du Maurier (wrote the story), and Evan Hunter (wrote the screenplay). It's stars are Rod Taylor, Tippi Hendren, and Suzanne Pleshette.
The film stars off with a rich jobless woman who chases a man she has an attraction for into a small town in Northern California. This town seems to be the main target of wild birds that have unexplicably started attacking people - the external threat in this thriller is nature.
The film has many of the characteristics that make it a thriller.
It has key action scenes: mainly the attacks on people such as the attack during the children's party and the attack during the cafe scene. However there are other tense moments in the film such as the end scene where they have to carefully get away from the birds, who are all surrounding them.
The film has resourceful heroes - this is demonstrated in the house scene, where the house is under attack - the door was being slowly worn down by the birds, so Mitch nailed a clock onto the door so that the birds would have more to peck through.
There is plenty of suspense in the films - this is usually before the birds attack though, however the scene at the end of the film is full of suspense, but doesn't end in an attack as the heroes have to walk through the sea of birds in order to get to the car and get Melanie to the hospital.
The scene where Tippi Hendren is fully attacked by birds took around a week to shoot as it was difficult to pull off. Birds were even attacked to her clothes with nylon strings to make sure they couldn't get away. At one point she was even injured by a bird in the film.
Hitchcock's films usually end with "The end" - this film doesn't do that because Hitchcock wanted to give the audience a feeling of unending terror.
On leaving the UK's premiere of the film at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, the leaving audience were greeted with the screeching of birds that was played through loudspeakers.
Another thing to note was the lack of a proper musical score - the film's tension was more built up through the silence, which left the audience consistently wondering when the next attack would arrive.
The film's MacGuffin is the birds' inexplicable actions - it is not found out why they attacked, and why it was centred around that town specifically.
