Psycho Shower Sequence (and why its a thriller film landmark)

The main reason why I think the film is so effective as a thriller is the fact the central protagonist is killed halfway thorugh the film. It is something the audience is not expecting and thus is twice as shocking. As the Bloch (The author of Psycho) said:

'It occurred to me to do something not generally done in fiction: establish a heroine, give her a problem, amke her more or less likeable so that the reader would have some kind of empathy for her, then kill her off about one third of the way through the story. Redaers would say 'My God, now what?''.

This is again twisting the audiences expectations to make a thriller more captivating and suspenseful.

The other real success of the film in my eyes is the shower scene (http://youtube.com/watch?v=sdrDpELNbks), as not only is it extremely well shot, but it is alsoplays on the audience's fears. As Bloch said:

'I had a notion that a person is never more defenceless than when taking a shower . . . a sudden intrusion is a very shocking thing'.

The whole sequence starting from when we take Norman Bates's perspective as he watches Marion undressing, we imediately feel she is trapped and vulnerable. This shot is especially good in making the audience feel unerved. The the use of frames within frames makes the shot feel voyeuristic, while the extended shots of Marion undressing are uncomfortable to say the least as we see the film from the POV of the killer.

The killing itself is also extremely well shot as the killing is shocking even though we do not see it clearly on screen. There are very quick cuts (literally as well!), as we switch between reaction shots of the predator and his prey. The camera also doesn't linger on Marion's dead body, instead cuuting away to the blood swirling down the plughole and the curtains ripping. This leaves the killing to the audiences imagination, something which doesn't really happen in modern thrillers/horrors.

Another good thriller to see which is in a similar vein to 'Psycho' is 'Peeping Tom' (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054167/), which deals with the theme of voyeurism really well and is a classic of the genre.

Here's a trailer for it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GzcTp28GFNk