Rating of
3/4
"I like to watch."
Matthew Brady - wrote on 06/03/22
‘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 window, and Jake spies on her through a telescope, and becomes obsessed with her. But upon spying, something is not what it seems.
Jake is also a pervert, by the way. De Palma’s pervert. But in some way, we are perverts as well because we too want to see what happens next.
De Palma is an underestimated director of genre filmmaking like this, as he elevates it every time. He takes familiar plot beats from two Alfred Hitchcock movies like ‘Rear Window’ and ‘Vertigo’, but completely spins them on its head and takes a distinctive approach. It goes so far that I had no idea where it was going, and yet, that kept me hooked as each scene moves at a pace that keeps things engaging and ridiculously batshit insane.
The soundtrack for the film by Pino Donaggio feels timeless. It has that electronic and magical wave that it is hard not to be seduced by it. One score is called Telescope, which is pure 80's in 4 minutes. It’s so beautiful but haunting, especially when the female vocals kick in. What can I say, I listen to the score every day...like clockwork.
Overall rating: De Palma once said that people either love or hate him, but for this, I love you, Palma.
