While it might not be the best Brian De Palma film, Body Double (1984) is certainly the quintessential Brian De Palma film, and it’s certainly the most notorious, and it’s become my favourite of his auteur thrillers. Publicised as the heir to Alfred Hitchcock in his continual homages to the ‘Master of Suspense’ across films like Sisters and Dressed To Kill, De Palma was also criticised as an exaggeration of misogyny, especially with Body Double. Craig Wasson is the anti-hero, the actor’s weak WASP-y nature perfect for a character who continually commits creepy acts (peeping, stalking, etc) in his pursuit of a feminine ideal. He plays an actor who suffers from claustrophobia but gets a gig house-sitting a spectacular, elevated pad in the hills. Lured into spying on a next-door neighbour (Deborah Shelton) who performs lurid displays in clear view of the window, Wasson becomes caught in a murderous plot. As a film, Body Double fascinates with its rubbing of shoulders with seedy avenues of ‘video nasty’ VHS thrillers and video pornography, dark aspects that are softened by the film’s continual undercutting of Hollywood illusion with its behind-the-scenes movie-making jokes. As porno star Holly Wood, Melanie Griffith is the type of scene stealer who makes you believe she’s in the movie more than she actually is. It’s also such an eighties movie that even Frankie Goes To Hollywood pops up halfway through to perform ‘Relax’. Campy, grotesque, and silly, Body Double exists as a fun, sleazy romp. Recommended.
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