Psycho Page #10

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CUT TO:

THE DEAD BODY:

Lying half in, half out of the tub, the head tumbled over,

touching the floor, the hair wet, one eye wide open as if

popped, one arm lying limp and wet along the tile floor.

Coming down the side of the tub, running thick and dark along

the porcelain, we see many small threads of blood. CAMERA

FOLLOWS away from the body, travels slowly across the

bathroom, past the toilet, out into the bedroom. As CAMERA

approaches the bed, we see the folded newspaper as Mary placed

it on the bedside table.

CLOSE UP - THE NEWSPAPER

beside the bed. The CAMERA now moves away over to the window

and looks up to the house, and as it gets there we HEAR,

coming from within the house, the SOUND of Norman's fearful,

shocked voice.

NORMAN'S VOICE

Mother! Oh God, what... blood,

blood... mother...!

We cannot entirely distinguish these exclamations.

After a moment or two of silence, Norman emerges from the

front door, dashes down the path toward the motel.

QUICK CUT TO:

EXT. THE PATH - (NIGHT)

Norman is coming AT CAMERA, running head-on. He dashes into

an extreme close up and we see the terror and fear ripe in

his face. CAMERA PANS as Norman races past, holds as Norman

runs to the porch and quickly along it and directly to Mary's

room.

INT. MARY'S CABIN - (NIGHT)

Norman pauses a moment in the doorway, glances about the

room, hears the shower going, sees the bathroom door is open.

He goes to the bathroom, looks in, sees the body.

Slowly, almost carefully, he raises his hands to his face,

covers his eyes, turns his face away. Then he crosses to the

window, looks out at the house. Shot is so angled that we

see the bedside table with the newspaper on it.

After a moment, Norman moves from the window, sinks onto the

edge of the bed.

FRESH ANGLE - BEHIND NORMAN

Norman sitting on bed, the bathroom in b.g. of shot. We can

see only the hand of the dead girl, lying along the tile

floor. Norman presses his eyes, fights to find a way out of

his dilemma. Slowly, a kind of settling comes upon him, the

peace that comes with decision.

Norman rises, goes to the window, looks out, and then, with

resolution, closes the window and draws the curtain across

it. Then he crosses to the front window, facing the porch,

and draws those curtains closed. Then he switches off the

bedroom light, leaving the room lit only by the spill from

the bathroom. He opens the front door, goes out.

EXT. THE HOTEL PORCH - (NIGHT)

Norman comes out of Mary's cabin, closes the door carefully

behind him, goes along the porch to his office, goes in. We

stay outside. Immediately, the "Vacancy" sign goes off, and

then the motel sign goes off. As CAMERA GOES closer to the

office, the lights within go off and we HEAR a closet door

opening and then the SOUND of a pail being picked up. Norman

comes out of office, closes door, looks cautiously about,

goes along porch, carrying pail with mop in it, goes into

Mary's cabin, closing the door after him.

INT. MARY'S CABIN

With the paper in the foreground, Norman enters. We can see

him in the dim spill of light. He pauses by the door, then

gathers his strength and goes into the bathroom. We HEAR him

set the pail on the tiled floor, and then we HEAR the shower

being turned off. And there is total silence. CAMERA MOVES

FORWARD so that we can see into bathroom.

CAMERA is ANGLED that we see Norman only from the waist up.

Quickly and deftly he unhooks the shower curtain, emerges

with it into the bedroom. CAMERA PANS down and we see him

spread the shower curtain on the bedroom floor, just outside

the bathroom door. He spreads the curtain so that one end of

it comes up against the bathroom threshold and slightly over

and onto the tile floor. Again he goes into the bathroom and

CAMERA TILTS up so that we see only the upper half of Norman.

He works carefully, with his arms extended away from his

body, slowly pulls the dead body out of the tub, drags it

across the tile floor and onto the spread-out shower curtain

in the bedroom. Having arranged the body, he straightens up,

examines his hands, sees bloodstains on them. He returns to

the bathroom, goes to the hand-basin.

CLOSE SHOT:

We see his hands being washed, see the bloodstains being

diluted and washed away by the gush of the faucet water.

NORMAN:

We see Norman shake his hands free of the water, then turn

to the job of cleaning the bathroom.

He places the pail in the tub, runs water into it, dips the

mop in, swabs the tile floor. With a towel he wipes off the

wall over the tub and the edges and sides of the tub and

even the shower curtain rod. Then he takes a second towel

and goes over the cleaned areas, carefully drying them.

Finally he rinses and squeezes out the mop, empties the pail,

cleans out the tub, and goes out into the bedroom.

INT. MARY'S BEDROOM

Norman steps carefully around the unseen body, crosses to

the desk, starts going through Mary's handbag, in search of

her car keys. He suddenly notices them lying on the desk,

where he'd thrown them after parking her car. He picks up

the keys, crosses the room, goes out.

EXT. THE PORCH

We see Norman pauses at the door, check cautiously, then

hurry across the porch and into Mary's car. He circle-turns

the car, so that its trunk is backed up to the turns porch,

directly opposite Mary's door, as close as it can go.

Then he alights, goes to the trunk, opens it with the key

and, leaving the trunk lid raised, goes back into the cabin.

INT. MARY'S ROOM

From a raised angle, we see Norman bend down and begin to

wrap the shower curtain around the body. We see the edges of

the curtain as they are raised and laid down again. Then he

picks up the wrapped body, crosses to the door, uses his

foot to pull the door open, and, leaving the door open behind

him, goes quickly across the porch and gently lays the body

in the trunk. He closes the lid then, but does not lock it.

He comes back into the cabin, closes the door completely,

flicks on the light.

Again the newspaper is in the foreground. For a moment he

pauses, closes his eyes against the realization of what he

is doing, then quickly pushes all thoughts away, continues

with his work. With the room lighted, he now proceeds to

gather up all Mary's articles and toss them into the suitcase.

He checks all drawers and the closet, gets down and checks

under bed and bureau, goes into the bathroom, checks that

room again, comes back into the bedroom, looks about

carefully, spots Mary's handbag, throws even that into the

suitcase, is finally satisfied that all traces of the girl

are gone from the room. Then he closes Mary's suitcase, picks

it up.

With his free hand he picks up the pail, in which are the

mop and the used towels. He crosses to the door, switches

off the light with his shoulder, pulls open the door, starts

out.

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