Psycho, the birds and Halloween : the intimacy of terror in three classic films

221 Pages·2014·2.337 MB·English

by  Rasmussen, Randy Loren

Psycho, The Birds and
Halloween
ALSO BY RANDY RASMUSSEN
AND FROM MCFARLAND
Orson Welles: Six Films Analyzed,
Scene by Scene (2006)
Stanley Kubrick: Seven Films
Analyzed (2001; paperback 2005)
Children of the Night: The Six Archetypal Characters
of Classic Horror Films (1998; paperback 2006)
Psycho, The Birds and
Halloween
The Intimacy of Terror in
Three Classic Films
R R
ANDY ASMUSSEN
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:My thanks to Kalan Davis,
Colin Davis and Richard Suggs for technical assistance.
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Rasmussen, Randy Loren, 1953–
Psycho, The birds and Halloween : the intimacy of terror
in three classic films / Randy Rasmussen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-7883-5
♾
softcover : acid free paper
1. Horror films—History and criticism. 2. Terror in
motion pictures. 3. Psycho (Motion picture : 1960)
4. Birds (Motion picture) 5. Halloween (Motion picture :
1978) I. Title.
PN1995.9.H6R373 2014
791.43'6164—dc23 2013041471
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2014 Randy Rasmussen. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Tippi Hedren in The Birds, 1963 (Universal
Pictures/Photofest); background film frame (iStockphoto/
Thinkstock)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For the Movie Night Gang:
Kalan, Colin, Karlene and Terry
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments iv
Preface 1
Introduction: Shadows and Sunlight 3
1. Hitchcock’s Psycho: Off the Main Highway 7
2. Hitchcock’s The Birds: Hidden Talons 82
3. Carpenter’s Halloween: Fear Itself 146
Selected Bibliography 209
Index 211
vii
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Preface
If horror films are judged solely by their ability to scare the crap out of
audiences, pure and simple, then the three examples discussed in this book
are obsolete. Antiquated. Old-fashioned. Long since supplanted by more vio-
lent and gory fare. Unless, of course, their modern-day audiences possess a
sense of historical perspective. An imaginative appreciation for the impact
these movies had on audiences back in 1960, 1963 and 1978. Though I suspect
even a new viewer of Psycho, if by some strange occurrence he or she had never
heard about that movie’s infamous shower scene, might be knocked back a
bit by its two brief evocations of brutally violent murder.
Fear has many different faces, of which immediate shock is only one.
And no other filmmaker explored fear in all its aspects more than Alfred
Hitchcock. For example, Psycho is the most blatantly titled horror film of the
modern era, yet unfolds as a carefully modulated, step-by-step dramatization
of many different facets of fear. Starting with the fear of getting older, alone
and unloved, stuck in a stale job. The combined fear and thrill of feeling
tempted to commit a crime, and the fear of getting caught. The audience
experiences so many “little” fears with heroine Marion Crane before she
encounters Norman Bates, the Crown Prince of Fear, and the violence it can
unleash when uncontrolled.
This project began as a study of Hitchcock’s The Birds. I became fasci-
nated by the brief yet complex relationship between two of its characters:
Melanie Daniels and Annie Hayworth. Two rivals for the affections of the
same man, they nevertheless become quite good friends and are able to discuss
their differences with a good measure of frankness. They even form an alliance
to save a group of schoolchildren from the film’s “monster,” a horde of attack-
ing birds, before death removes one of them from the dramatic equation.
How that relationship plays out in conjunction with other relationships in
the story, and how they all relate to the bird attacks that are the principal
horror element in The Birds, seemed a fascinating puzzle to me.
Psycho’s parlor conversation between Marion Crane and Norman Bates,
followed by the violent shower scene in which Marion is killed, was an obvious
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