Along with its enticing plot, Vertigo features the first use of the now-famous dolly effect (nicknamed the “vertigo shot”) where the camera moves backward while the zoom is increased. This is meant to mirror one’s view in a moment of vertigo: blurry, lacking focus, and dizzying. Because of the angle needed for this goal to be achieved, the audience instantly falls into the position of Scottie staring into the void. Hitchcock takes over the gaze of the audience, not only dictating what they see but how they are involved in what they see.

Acrophobia, Scottie’s fear of heights, is not something that affects all viewers of the film, but by forcing each viewer into the vertigo perspective, height automatically presents as more concerning than it would in a basic, inanimate shot. There is a focus on perspective throughout the film, as early as the opening credits when the camera zooms into the eye of an unknown woman, drawing attention to eyesight and how much can be learned through a gaze. In this case, because we move into the eye to see the entire rest of the film play out, there is much to be learned. Also, as Scottie becomes more and more captured by Madeline and Judy, the audience follows his gaze; we see what he sees, falling victim to whatever he wants to fixate on. Implicated in Scottie’s questionable actions, the audience is forced to participate in things they may find morally incorrect. As in other films, Hitchcock’s audience is gaining entertainment from the harm of another, but by requiring his audience to experience vertigo, they become just as involved as Scottie, unlike in other films where they are simply spectators. The more personal nature of Hitchcock’s approach in Vertigo forces the audience into an even greater state of discomfort, one they cannot escape from within Hitchcock’s cinematic San Francisco. It is not until the film is over that the audience is able to regain an outside perspective and leave Scottie’s actions as separate from their own.