DRESSED TO KILL

I like Brian De Palma as a director and I'm a huge Hitchcock fan.  So this homage to 'Psycho' should be like catnip for me.

But although it has some merit (I guess) it is hard to get past how sleazy and transphobic it is. At times (especially in the opening scene) it seems perilously close to soft porn.  Throughout it seems to invite the audience to enjoy violence, or the threat of violence, against women. 

To make matters worse I didn't think the film is especially well made.  There's a long sequence in an art gallery which is supposed to be suspenseful but it didn't work for me, because it seemed to go on forever, and because the accompanying music was so slack.

The staging of the murder is intended as a clear parallel to that of Marion Crane in 'Psycho' but it is far less memorable but it does confirm that Hitchcock was right to shoot 'Psycho' in black-and-white.

The plot is pretty silly, although there is some enjoyment to be had from seeing it play out, even if the climactic scene is not one of De Palma's better set pieces.

I was surprised to learn that the critical response was generally favourable. Critics, what do they know?

RATING: x Find Something Better To Do