Comparing Psycho & What You See in the Dark

WhatYouSeeInTheDark

http://hhttp://http://www.ifc.com/fix/2011/05/peering-into-munozs-hitchcocki

I found a great website comparing Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to Manuel Munoz’s What You See in the Dark which has been a in depth dialogue in class over the past week and specifically discussing the idea of voyeurism. I particularly like the idea of Taylor’s main point: “Psycho” was the first film to suggest that what we saw in the dark, saw us. “

The article spends a great deal of time on the topic of the viewer as voyeur. The obvious scenes in Psycho that engage the viewer as a voyeur are of course the beginning of the film where we catch Marion Crane and Sam Loomis engaged in post sexual encounters in their hotel room and of course in the famous scene where Norman Bates is peeking at Marion in her room preparing to take a shower through a peep hole. He also presents a challenge to look at the less obvious scenes where the eyes of judgment are not only on the character’s moral decisions but also the viewer him(her)self. The eyes of the birds in the lounge watching Marion and Norman talking, the eyes of the subjects in photos Marion has while she escapes, the eyes of the cop through his sunglasses when he first encounters Marion on the side of the road.

He then transfers over to What You See in the Dark where the eyes are the constant gossiping around Bakersfield during the filming of Psycho and the constant love quarrels between many of the characters, including Dan, Teresa, Cheno, Cindy and Cal. By using innocent love triangles as a commonality between these characters, Munoz is able to provide the small town feel of isolation juxtaposed with the shaking details of Teresa’s murder as well as the uproar the Hitchcock movie caused amongst the people of Bakersfield in the 1950s.

The movie and the book start mirroring each other much like the uncanny use of doubling we’ve discussed in Gothic novels. The murder of Teresa mirroring Marion’s murder, the kleptomaniac tendencies at work, Arlene controlling her Dan like the relationship between Norman Bates and his mother, the ownership of a small motel.

Works Cited:

Taylor, Charles. “Peering into Munoz’s Hitchcockian Thriller, “What You See in the Dark”. IFC. 4 May 2011. Website. 3 May 2014.

Comments are closed.