Review of Body Double

Voyeurism, fetishism and pornography collide in a frenzied, unabashedly psychosexual pastiche of "Vertigo" and "Rear Window". Whilst De Palma foregrounding of 1980s culture adds a new dimension of outre trashiness to the proceedings, the film exists on its own plane as an artefact of its time, albeit by translating images and styles as a register on what separates the contemporary from the past in terms of sex and murder. Although commenting on Hitchcock's erotic themes and De Palma's clear evocation of them is a thorny subject considering the latter's high art valuation by critics, "Body Double" is nevertheless a stylish, unsettling remnant of Hitchcockian imagery and psychological bent as viewed through the fervid sheen and perversions of Hollywood.