Watch Body Double

Body Double is a neo-noir thriller movie from 1984 directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, and Gregg Henry. The movie is about murder, obsession, and voyeurism. It borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock's films such as Vertigo and Rear Window. The plot of Body Double revolves around Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), an unemployed actor who is claustrophobic. After being kicked out of his apartment, a fellow actor named Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry) offers Scully his luxurious apartment in the Hollywood Hills while he goes on a trip. It is here that Scully meets Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton), a beautiful woman who performs a memorable striptease that Scully watches from the balcony of the apartment. However, to his horror, Scully discovers that someone is watching and filming Gloria from a nearby building with a telescope.

After following the voyeur, Scully meets Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), an adult movie actress who is working on a set nearby. Holly seems to know who the voyeur is and offers to help Scully catch him. She introduces Scully to a group of adult filmmakers where they stage a scene to lure the voyeur to come to them. However, things quickly spiral out of control, and Scully finds himself caught up in a web of murder, deception, and confusion, playing cat and mouse with the voyeur who is just as obsessed with him as he is with Gloria.

De Palma's direction in Body Double is reminiscent of classic Hollywood, with exaggerated camera movements, sweeping shots, and a cinematic flair that makes it easy to become immersed in the story. The film has an atmospheric quality that creates a pervading sense of paranoia and unease. The narrative structure frequently employs skewed camera angles and unique perspectives while the score by Pino Donaggio amplifies the tension at crucial moments, creating a sense of impending doom.

One of the standout performances in the movie is from Craig Wasson, who delivers a strong performance as Jake Scully. Scully is a man struggling to find his footing in life as everything seems to be falling apart around him. However, as he becomes more involved in the mystery surrounding Gloria, he starts to develop an obsessive disorder himself, creating an intriguing dichotomy in his character. Melanie Griffith also gives a great performance as Holly Body, the enigmatic adult actress who is as captivating as she is mysterious.

Body Double explores themes of obsession, voyeurism, and the blurred line between reality and fiction. Brian De Palma's direction stylizes the narrative making it a quintessentially 80s film. Though it may be considered dated by modern standards, it retains a timeless quality that leaves a lasting impression. The film is a love letter to old Hollywood and its influence is apparent in every frame. Fans of classic thrillers and neo-noir will find a good mix of the two in Body Double.

Overall, Body Double is an engaging thriller that combines mystery, suspense with complex characters whose motivations are often open to interpretation. The cinematography, score, and performances all come together to create a tense and compelling narrative that keeps the audience guessing until the very end. It's a triumphant example of De Palma's skills as a storyteller, and one that is well worth seeing for lovers of the genre.

Body Double is a 1984 crime movie with a runtime of 1 hour and 54 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 6.8 and a MetaScore of 69.