Body Double

Body Double is surely one of filmmaker Brian De Palma’s more blatant riffs on Hitchcock, as the movie contains thematic and visual references to several of Hitch’s well-known efforts – including Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho. Bill Maher look-alike Craig Wasson stars as Jake Scully, a struggling actor who finds himself sucked into a murder mystery after he surreptitiously witnesses the brutal killing of a neighbor. There’s a whole lot more to the story than just that – including a thoroughly bizarre subplot in which Jake, desperate to dig up some more clues, becomes a full-fledged porn actor (!) – and De Palma, who also wrote the screenplay, is clearly having a lot of fun with the various conventions of the thriller genre, though there’s certainly no denying that the film does possess a fairly uneven sense of pacing. Of course, De Palma’s expectedly grandiose directorial choices go a long way towards keeping things interesting – with a long, dialogue-free pursuit sequence an obvious highlight. And while the movie is unquestionably a product of its time – eg there’s a prolonged, music video-esque interlude in which Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax blares – Body Double remains an essential entry within De Palma’s body of work.

*** out of ****