I liked this movie when I was younger, but I finally saw Vertigo and this really seems like a cheap knockoff now.
shareI believe it was intended as an homage to Hitchcock with heavy influence of at least a couple of his films, namely Vertigo and Rear Window.
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Ripoff.
shareDe Palma and Robert Avrech are on record saying the Hitchcock was the inspiration for this film. De Palma also purposely ratcheted up the sex and gore to infuriate the critics who gave negative reviews to Scarface (1983).
shareIt's homage. If you've ever heard De Palma in an interview, he loves Hithcock, fully acknowledges his influence. "Ripoff" would be stealing ideas with no respect for the source. That's not De Palma.
shareIt's a ripoff, not because of the Vertigo homage but because he ripped off Blow Up (which he homaged in Blow Out), but then used for Body Double. He also ripped off Rear Window, too, if I remember correctly.
The funny thing about defending DePalma because he emphatically stated that he was paying homage to Vertigo is that he used a scummy maneuver that plagiarists often resort to to deflect accusations of plagiarism. They'll tell you they were paying homage to X, to keep people from noticing that they were ripping off Y wholesale.
It's 80's schlock. Which people liked, in the 80's. No one was worried that someone might be offended (for better of for worse).
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