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How Does Alfred Hitchcock Manipulate The Audience In 'Psycho'? Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is thought to be, by most, the greatest film director of all time. He was born in Leytonstone, London on13 August 1899. He directed many great films such as The Lodger, The Birds, Sabotage, Notorious, Rear Window, and of course one of his greatest achievements ever, Psycho in 1960. He directed the first British sound film - Blackmail. Alfred Hitchcock once said, " Audience reaction is more important than the content of the film". Throughout and before the playing of Psycho, Hitchcock manipulates the audience in many ways. The words that Alfred Hitchcock said that illustrates manipulation in Psycho the most is "Terror is often accompanied by suspense in the unfolding of a thrilling narrative - or, to put it another way, a story which gives the reader a feeling of terror necessarily contains a certain measure of suspense". We can really see in Psycho that this is true, because all of the terror and surprise in the film is due to the building of suspense, done by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock first starts too manipulate the audience before the screening of Psycho has even begun. The short trailer manipulates the audience's perception of what t