Body Double (1984)
Voyeurism, Illusion, and Murder Behind Hollywood Facades
Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), an actor recently laid off and burdened by claustrophobia, takes a gig house-sitting in a sleek Hollywood Hills mansion. From his vantage point with a telescope he begins spying nightly on a woman named Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) dancing in her window. What starts as idle voyeurism soon becomes obsession and when Jake witnesses what appears to be her murder, he plunges into a disturbing world of porn, doubles, deception, and danger. With the help of Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), a bold porn actress, he unravels a plot full of trickery, masked identities, and cinematic illusions.
Directed by Brian De Palma, Body Double is a neo-noir erotic thriller that plays with the boundaries of fantasy and reality. The film is lush with Hitchcock tributes claustrophobia, voyeurism, mistaken identity, suspense built from what the audience sees vs. what the characters imagine yet it pushes further into eroticism, surrealism, and spectacle. It’s both a critique of Hollywood’s glamorous veneer and a twisted love letter to suspense filmmaking, with a tone that oscillates between seductive and shocking.
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Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Director: Brian De Palma
Rated: R
