It's Not All Just Water Under the Bridge: Diabolique, Psycho, and Water as Metaphor

Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 film Diabolique is the French question which was answered five years later by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho is, of course, a gold-star member of the horror movie canon and a lesson in the deployment of psychological tension in film. Many elements of Psycho, however, echoed Diabolique. These two partner-in-crime films are notable for their somewhat inverted deployment of water as a harbringer of death.

Water in any form is often used as a symbol of rebirth and purification. A timely (and heavy-handed) example occurs at the conclusion of Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, when Dr. Ryan Stone emerges naked from the ocean where her space capsule has crashed. She has survived intense trauma, both in space and on earth, and she is finally able to relieve herself of her psychological burden, a purification which is symbolized by the sea. In Roman Polanski's 1971 version of Macbeth, Macbeth asks after the murder of Duncan: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?" Lady Macbeth assure her husband that "a little water" will remove the blood from their hands and the crime from their conscience. Later, driven mad by guilt for her actions, Lady Macbeth imagines bloodstains on her hands, and seeks out water to absolve herself. Here, she turns to water as an instrument of repentance.

In Psycho and Diabolque, however, water possesses none of these powers. Instead, it serves as a threatening agent of death and destruction.Our protagonist in Psycho, Marion Crane, is famously murdered in the shower by Norman Bates. Here, the setting is powerful because it signifies vulnerability: Marion is naked, defenseless, and attempting to cleanse herself. But with the appearance of Norman and Marion's subsequent death, the water almost becomes an accomplice in her murder. Her blood mixes with water and Hitchcock directs us to watch it slide slowly down the drain. The second appearance of water is just as powerful, as Norman places Marion's body in her car along with the stolen money  and sinks it in a pond on the Bates Motel property. Now, the water has become both the setting of her murder and her grave. At the film's conclusion, after Marion's sister and lover have apprehended Bates, we see the police dragging Marion's car (and her body) out of the pond, releasing her from the water's power.

Similarly, in Diabolique, the appearance of water means death is imminent. Christina and Nicole both drown Michel in a bathtub. As they return to the boarding school with his body, water leaks from the wicker trunk, attracting notice and and almost getting the women caught. Back at school, they throw the body into the pool, surprising that when his body rises to the surface, Michel's death will be deemed to be an accident. At this point, water's role is as both crime scene and burial ground, like Psycho, although in this case it is also the medium of murder, which only strengthens its associations with death.

After attempting  to orchestrate the discovery of Michel's corpse by students, Nicole and Christina drain the pool, and discover that the body has disappeared. Here, water reminds us of its powers of resurrection.

Later, an unidentified corpse is found drowned in the river, and Christina believes it may be Michel, although it is revealed to be a stranger. Once again, water appears in conjunction with death. Here, and in the swimming pool from which Michel's corpse has disappeared, water also alludes to Nicole and Christina's impending doom. Each incident suggests that the two women will be caught, and the psychological effects of this are especially evident in Christina, whose already sickly heart grows even weaker.

Water's final appearance is indeed the most significant. Christina is awoken during the night, and finds Michel's dead body submerged in her bathtub, looking exactly as it did when Nicole and Christina murdered him. Christina clutches her heart and dies. We see
Michel stand and remove a pair of contact lenses, dripping water, and reunite with Nicole, where it is revealed that Michel's murder was a plot contrived by Nicole and Michel to frighten Christina to death, so the two lovers can be be together and so Michel can inherit the boarding school and her money.Water is once again a force of dark resurrection, while retaining its association with death and evil.

In both Diabolique and Psycho, water negates its usual associations. Instead of being a nurturing substance, water is an instrument of death, a cousin to murder, and a grave site.