Alfred+Hitchcock-+The+Legacy

=The Legacy =

Even after his death on April 29, 1980, Alfred Hitchcock is still seen as a man with a legacy. With suspense being his top priority, his mind was always set on the next big scare.

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If one is to have fears of men stabbing them in their shower or two murderers on a train, perhaps the best way to suppress these terrible anxieties is to put them into film. Why? To put the fear into others minds and make it their own, at least, that is what Alfred Hitchcock thought.

The Master of Suspense did not only get his title from his movies, but also the way he wanted the audience to feel: “emotional and psychological terror.” (Auiler) The feeling of not wanting to be alone watching a scary movie or the effect you have when you cannot sleep at all the night you watched one were the effects Alfred Hitchcock was looking for. He did not only want to scare the audience while they were watching his films, he wanted them to feel the fear after the movie ended. Just because the movie ended, doesn’t mean the fear ended.

Terror, suspense, apprehensiveness, thrill, the unexpected frights: all feeling intended to be the emotions felt when watching any horror or suspense film. The point of making a horror film, according to Alfred Hitchcock, is because, "People like to be scared when they feel safe."

Horror is described as "an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust" (Webster Dictionary). Many people enjoy this feeling because we like to push the limits of our anxiety. We enjoy experiencing dangerous or unrealistic situations that make us think twice about our daily lives. Studies show that these little tests of our emotions make us, being human, "feel strong, giving us that 'adrenaline rush' we search for" (Today) because we do not have such experience in our daily lives and feel compelled for such a catharsis to occur. Its what directors like to refer as "the edge of your seat" feelings. Our minds play tricks on us. After watching a scary movie, we think the worst thoughts possible. Common thoughts are: "Someone is going to kill me in my sleep." "There is a man watching me from outside my living room window." "There's someone waiting in the kitchen." "Did I lock all of the doors?" (Purtell) Even if we hear a small creak or the wind blow against our windows, we always assume the worst. For a movie to effect us that much, it would have to dig deeper than watching: it messes with our brains psychologically and emotionally. Alfred Hitchcock was a genius when it came to messing with people's mental state. He wanted the audience to be so scared that they would forget they were in a theatre. This is why many horror directors today, such as James Nguyen, look up to Hitchcock as the highest skilled director for their genre. Many start their base or new ideas off of Alfred Hitchcock's techniques, movies, and style.



A little know fact about The Master of Suspense is that he actually had a very good sense of humor. He loved cracking jokes on set as much as he loved directing.

Another little known fact about Hitchcock is that, "by accident, he had begun a custom of appearing in a cameo in each of his films" (Harris).



Alfred Hitchcock' most memorable cameo was the appearance of him sitting right next to Cary Grant on a bus in //To Catch A Thief//, made in 1955. They had to do many cuts of this scene due to random outbursts of hysterical laughs on set.

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Sources:=== Purtell, Tim. “A Director Under the Influence.” Entertainment Weekly. 15 January 1993. Web. 25 September 2013

Ochoa, George. Corey, Melinda. The American Film Institute. Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 2002. Print.

Auiler, Dan. Hitchcock’s Notebooks. New York. Avon Books Inc., 1999. Print.

Goldman, Andrew. “The Revenge of Alfred Hitchcock’s Muse.” New York Times. 5 October 2012. Pg. MM12. Print.