Director: Brian De Palma
Running Time: 105 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: July 29th 2013
For years Brian De Palma has carried around the moniker of being a Hitchcock imitator, and it is perhaps Dressed To Kill more than any of his other movies that’s the cause of that. While it is its own beast, it’s hard to escape the fact that the movie borrows liberally from Hitchcock, particularly Vertigo and Psycho – from killing off the main character partway through to a fascination with sex and perversion.
However it’s slightly like Hitchcock on acid, as it’s far more overblown than the master, which has led to accusations of sexism and transphobia. Various people have tried to explain away these claims over the years, but it does sometimes seem like Dressed To Kill is punishing its characters for not conforming to sex and gender norms. [Read more…]