BODY DOUBLE (1984)

It’s like watching double Hitchcock films in a single one! How? Read this- Jack Scully is a struggling actor working for B grade Hollywood films, frustrated husband who caught his wife sleeping with a stranger and starts living at friend’s luxurious home without any company. There’s a window with the telescope that can show him the neighborhood apartment’s provocative rich seductress where he let loose to his voyeuristic tendencies. Slowly his peeping eyes watch few other strange and mysterious things too that put her into peril. Seems like Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’, isn’t it? Not only this it has bit of ‘Vertigo’ too where the protagonist has his psychological flaw of being claustrophobic. There’s a murder, there’s a voyeur and but there’s not ‘a woman’.

Now if you’ve already seen those two absolutely must watch psychological thrillers made by Master Hitchcock, the plot here seems like know it all. Though the reason worthy to watch this is the stylistic treatment of Director Brian De Palma who blended cocktail of thrilling tension and sensuous voyeurism side by side with cleverly hiding the suspense. He used certain graphic violence and explicit provocative skin show but they’re just his props or common traits partly to hide the unknown actors. He had his queer inclination towards ingredients of B grade horror films too, watch the beginning and end of his this one along with ‘Blow Out’.

His experimental shot selections including his favorite panning shots is the treat. The way he filmed that tense filled drilling machine murder sequence is just awesome! Watch out those multitudes of brilliant shots and angle selections, the reason enough to suck into De Palma films. It was the time before he made his much appreciated ‘The Untouchables’ and ‘Scar Face’ with Hollywood’s two iconic actors. It was time, he’s heavily inspired from Master Hitchcock, Godard and Antonioni to name a few and made some of his cult creative films along with his contemporaries like Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg and Ridley Scott who shaped New Hollywood Cinema during 70s and 80s. Though among all these giants he was vindicated by critics either for being too much commercial or for representing kitsch Hitchcock; I’m sure many of them will agree today that he has done fair justice to all those Hitchcock inspired thriller films with style of his own.

Ratings-7/10