CMN 201
4/1/20
Topic: Psycho and Night of the Living Dead
Note: I will be in our class live chat room during our scheduled class for questions/comments/issues
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Zoom Virtual Office Hour
Tuesdays 1:45-2:45 or by appointment
--- First class after break
---Chat room/office hours/phone
--- Assignments via email
1. Alfred Hitchcock
--- Began career in London
--- TV show/thrillers
--- “father of modern horror film”
--- isolation/no place is safe
--- authoritative view of camera
--- 46 Films prior to Psycho
--- The Birds 3 years afterwards
2. Psycho
--- Small budget ($800,000) but commercial success
--- Shower scene (sensors/boycotts)
--- Upset expectations (empathize with thief, twist ending)
--- House as monster (Gothic) and narrator
--- Voyeur (Norman and audience) TV voyeurs
--- Detective story
--- Dark humor: You think I’m fruity”
--- Inspired other directors (John Carpenter Halloween)
--- Water redeems
--- Bird symbolism for female (Crane, eat like a bird)
--- Psychological horror of isolated family unit (domestic seclusion)
--- Mental health
--- Suburbs unsafe (horror next door, not outer space)
--- Importance of car/mobility (Marion buys new car, highway)
--- Doubles: 2 stories (Norman/Marion) 2 identities (Norman, Mom), 2 sisters (Marion/Lila)
--- Norman: No purpose in life of leisure (“hobby should pass time, not fill it”)
--- Secrets behind closed doors
Night of Living Dead (also from 1960’s, decade of conflict/fear)
Director George Romero reinvented the zombie
Night of the Living Dead movie link:
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Next Class: The Exorcist
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Attendance Question: (please submit vis email with name and class)
Who was my mentor when I was in College?
