Body Double Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 9824

Average Rating: 2.4/4

# of Ratings: 39

Theatrical Release Date: 10/26/1984

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Mystery

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Brian De Palma

Actors: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Dennis Franz, Guy Boyd, Deborah Shelton

Plot: An actor in LA is fired from the Vampire flick he's working on because of
his severe claustrophobia. He returns home to find his girlfriend in bed
with another man, leaves, and ends up house sitting for a friend. This
friend shows him the lovely wife he can "peek" at every night for fun,
which he does with restraint, until he spies a stranger inside her home!
What does he do? -- CJP

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 05/12/2024

This mid-80s "Vertigo" homage rides that thin line between artful thriller and splatter and sleaze schlock, and falls mostly on the correct side of the former.

Indyfreak - wrote on 07/06/2021

Sleazy but slickly produced suspense ride by Brian De Palma.

Matthew Brady
Movie God

"I like to watch."

Matthew Brady - wrote on 06/03/2022

‘Body Double’ is Brian De Palma’s erotic mystery thriller that I went into with some idea of what to expect, for me to leave with something different.

The movie is about Jake Scully (Craig Wasson, who is fantastic in the film), a struggling actor after being fired from a low-bought vampire movie due to his claustrophobia, causing problems with production. If that was not bad enough, he finds out his girlfriend is cheating on him, and since he lives at her house, he is kicked out and left homeless and unemployed. But he manages to land a house-sitting job from another fellow actor in a modernist home called the Chemosphere, where it oversees the LA lights and the neighborhood. Among the Neighborhood is a woman who every night, almost like clockwork, strips in front of the …

cinegeek.de
Producer

Visuelle Erzählen

cinegeek.de - wrote on 06/23/2016

Our Daily Free Stream: Brian De Palma - Body Double. Zum Kinostart der tollen Doku De Palma! - Pures, reines Kino in bester Hitch cock Tradition! Mehr noch, eine Fingerübung in Sachen Hitch cock! Einziger Unterschied: Der Held ist nicht makellos, er agiert schwach und befindet sich in schrecklicher Gefahr. Und wir können uns mit ihm nahtlos identifizieren. Body Double ist ausgesprochen clever konstruiert und legt seine Gewichtung nicht auf Dialoge, sondern das visuelle Erzählen. Minutenlang kommt De Palma (so wie sein Vorbild) ganz ohne das gesprochene Wort aus. Wir befinden uns dabei immer auf dem Wissensstand des Helden, sind weder schneller, noch langsamer als er. Stück für Stück finden wirs mit ihm heraus... Craig Wasson spielt Jake: Weder besonders klug, aber auch nicht dumm, …

CJP
Producer

60%

CJP - wrote on 01/27/2009

Action: 2/3 + Comedy: 0.5/2 + Good vs Evil: 1/1 + Love/Sex: 1/1 + Special Effects: 0/1 + Plot: 0.5/1 + Music: 1/1 = 6/10 or 60%.

If you're familiar with De Palma's work (Scarface, Carrie) and enjoy it then this is the piece where you get to see him say something along the lines of, "I'm going over the top and I don't care what anyone thinks so hold on!"

Body Double is a statement on his disdain towards Hollywood through Hitchcockian tones within the world of pornography. The hero is flawed, it is outright and more than silly, and it's trashy yet purposeful camp make it almost unwatchable. Modern audiences will most likely write it off because of this, and I partially agree that they should, but the bizarre mix of pornography, murder, melodrama, and pure, unapologetic bad acting …