Body Double - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
80s and 90s thrillers are a guilty pleasure of mine, and have been for a very long time. I was addicted to pretty much every one of Michael Douglas’s “erotic” thrillers he put out back in the day, and Morgan Freeman’s take on the genre were also staples in my house. However, very few were as bizarrely attractive to a teenager as was 1984’s Body Double by the infamous Brian De Palma. The trailer told me everything I needed to know. Hot woman, a murder, and the inevitable mystery told from the point of view of the innocent witness. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXCEPT that the actual real word result is much more akin to how my recently reviewed Bringing Out the Dead was in terms of how the trailer portrayed it, to what we actually saw on screen. Instead it’s a weird hodge podge thriller that shares more similarities to dream like fantasy and possibly directorial excesses more than your typical 1980s thriller.

Body Double has had a bit of a storied past on Blu-ray. Back in the day when major studios were not really wanting to put out catalog titles, Sony decided to farm out the De Palma flick to the now defunct Twilight Time studios, who printed 3,000 limited edition copies and that was that. Back in 2016 Sony decided to take back control of the film and release their own Blu-ray, but it was a pretty bare bones MOD release (Manufactured On Demand) that used a burnable BD-R for the media instead of printed BD-ROM (I’m almost 100% certain it was a burnable BD-R and not a BD-Rom, don’t take that as gospel) with a fairly steep price. Naturally it didn’t sell nearly as well as expected and outside of a few foreign releases, we’ve had to make do with the Twilight Times copy for most of us who bought the film. Luckily Sony is taking great pains at bringing their catalog titles up into the future, with great new 4K remasters, snazzy steelbook packaging, and Dolby Atmos to boot (and plenty of extras), and thankfully Body Double is no different.

Body double is going to be one of those “love it or hate it” sort of films, as there’s not a whole lot of leeway on it among fans, and it’s not hard to see why. De Palma has always had a bent for going towards the weird, but usually it’s kept very much in check with his big name blockbusters. I mean, this is the director who gave us Mission Impossible, The Untouchables, Carlitos Way and Mission to Mars. Each of them have very distinct stylistic edges to them, but they’re very accessible to the general public. But with Body Double, he sort of went a different direction.

On first glance this is your typical “erotic” thriller from the 1980s. Jake (Craig Wasson) is a blue collar actor trying to make it in Hollywood, only barely scraping by with his minimal roles. However, he has a bit going for him as the lead in a low budget indie vampire film, and the love of a good woman. Things take a sharp nose dive for the actor when he comes home to find out his girl is cheating on him, and subsequently moves out into an apartment. Luckily he’s sort of saved when a fellow actor by the name of Sam (Gregg Henry) gives him an opportunity to stay and house sit for a few weeks for a rich guy’s penthouse suite up in the outskirts of Los Angeles (Sam’s been staying there for a while, but needs to head out of town for a job and uses Jake as a stand in). Everything seems fine, and Jake settles in to the swanky pad.

Things take a turn when Jake notices that the woman just down the hill from him is sort of an exhibitionist, leading to the newly single guy to keep his eye glued to the window when she’s around. At first it’s just a bit of a peeping Tom thing with no other plans, but soon Jake notices that the woman is being stalked by an Indian man. Worried about her safety, Jake follows her to warn her, but before he can really get his sincerity across he pulls a bit of a Rear Window and watches her death from across the way. Now the cops are after him as the only witness, and now the down and out actor has figure out who the killer actually is, and why everything seems to lead back to him.

As I said, on the surface Body Double seems like your typical 80s thriller, but in reality it is anything but. The film plays out in an extremely lurid manner, with random nudity pretty much in every scene, and told in a stranger and stranger way as the film progresses. The first act of the film plays out exactly like you would expect. Guy checks out girl, guy sees her being stalked, and guy witnesses a murder. But past that point is where the film goes straight into the surreal, playing out almost like Crash or Bringing Out the Dead meets Rear Window. Jake realizes that he’s being setup, and that the woman who he saw murdered was not the woman he saw dancing through his telescope at night. Tracking her down leads to a blue movie actress named Holly (Melanie Griffith) who turns out to have been nothing more than a decoy to set up Jake for a crime he didn’t commit.

As someone who has seen, argued about in film class, and had more than a few late night conversations over it, I feel that De Palma’s thriller is really a movie within a movie, within a movie. On the surface the story is pretty straight forward, but there are clues everywhere that only the opening and the closing scene are actually in the present and “real”. Jake having trouble with his vampire role sparks the entire jaunt down bizarro lane, and if you look closely there’s a LOT of clues that all of this story about the woman next door and the murder is simply a fantasy in Jake’s head as he tries to grapple with the claustrophobia that hampering his vampire role. Look at the scene where Jake and the Gloria (Deborah Shelton) are making out on the beach. It’s always been an awkward and “seriously?” sort of scene from the second I saw this back in the late 90s, and the more I think about it I think that is the “black cat in the Matrix” scene that really solidifies that this is all in Jake’s head. It’s too over the top and stylized to be anything other than a dude’s fantasy. Especially when you look at the end battle between Jake and the Indian where Jake closes his eyes fighting his opponent, only to wake up in the coffin as the vampire. I could go on for HOURS about this, but needless to say, I’m of the opinion that Body Double is a movie within a movie (with a movie within that) focusing on Jake dealing with his inner claustrophobia demon.

Others have argued that this is simply Brian De Palma making an absolutely beautifully shot mess of a film (narratively speaking), and for years I actually thought that too. This felt like a vanity project, with De Palma piecing together a GORGEOUSLY shot film, but one that struggles with hammy dialog, bad acting, and a lurid plot line that seems only there to show some skin. In some ways it actually makes sense, as about 2/3rds of the movie really struggles trying to balance the erotic nature with the thriller nature, with cheesy B-film dialog. But at the end of the day I really feel a lot more comfortable with the “Movie within a movie within a movie” explanation the best. Possibly a mixture of the two. De Palma making a film about one man’s paranoia, but also letting himself go and just indulging in every flight of fancy along the way. Maybe we’ll never know, but either way, Body Double is one of the weirdest (and most polarizing) De Palma films to date.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Sony is legendary for making EXCEPTIONAL transfers for their catalog titles (for the most part, there’s been a few hiccups over the years) and Body Double had absolutely stunning transfers for the Sony and the Twilight Times Blu-ray. That being said, I haven’t seen the film for almost 10 years, and don’t have the old Twilight Times Blu-ray anymore either (sadly it fell and cracked on the tile back in 2017 or so when I moved), but the new 4K UHD looks absolutely amazing in motion. Taking elements of Alfred Hithcock and other old thriller directors, De Palma’s film is lovingly shot and even better looking in 4K. The sort of milky backdrop with overly blasted white levels looks pristine, with razor sharp details and no signs of crush or black level artifacting anywhere. Colors are very much the 1980s variety, with warm honey and browns as the primary shades, with a burnished set of reds and blues and greens thrown in to counter balance the dusky look. Grain is thick and heavy, but it’s very organic and natural looking, with no swarming or other wonkiness going on.








Audio:

I was actually a bit surprised by the addition of a Dolby Atmos track here from Sony as the film isn’t one I’d expect to receive the treatment. But it’s a welcome addition nonetheless. The Atmos track is accompanied by a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track (from the Blu-ray) and a 2.0 DTS-HD MA track replicating the original theatrical mix. First thing off my chest, this mix is heavily dependent on the music in the film, with the heights and surrounds really filling out from their usage. The dialog is clean and clear up front, but has that 1980s “thinness” that was typical of the era. Bass is nice and punchy for the score, but due to the Hitchcock nature of the film’s style, this is not going to be a surround extravaganza.









Extras:

• NEWLY ADDED: Archival EPK Interviews with Brian De Palma, Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith
• NEWLY ADDED: Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Relax" Music Video (BODY DOUBLE Version)
• 4 Featurettes:
• The Seduction
• The Setup
• The Mystery
• The Controversy
• Still Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer










I’m honestly torn on whether Body Double is one of Brian De Palman’s most subversive works, or simply a vanity project for the guy and it is what is on the surface. This debate has been going on for roughly 40 years, and I’m honestly not sure even to this day. I love parts of the film, but also can’t help but notice how over the top hammy and B-level the entire thing is outside of the cinematography (which is unbelievable, and reminds me of Fritz Lang at times). So on that front I’m not sure I can whole heartedly recommend the film. As a cheesy 80s thriller it fits right in with a ton of other low budget thrillers, but as a De Palma film, Body Double is strangely off putting. Now, that being said, the film has a VERY strong cult following, and those that love the film REALLY love the film. So if you’re a fan of the film then this is most definitely the way to go. We finally get a broad release of the film on HD, with a newly printed Blu-ray that’s NOT a BD-R, as well as a great set of extras and a nice new 4K UHD disc. But for most people, it’s one of those films that while I don’t think it’s BAD, I have to recommend renting it first (especially if you’re squeamish about 1980s erotic thrillers). Great release, interesting watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: Brian De Palma, Robert J. Avrech
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0, Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono, French Mono, Spanish DD Surround
Subtitles: English SDH, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai and Turkish.
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 114 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 24th, 2024

Travis Ballstadt said:

I remember the picture quality looking something like this.

View attachment 73916

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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!!!!!!! as a child of the 80s I feel that the newer generation will never expereince the joy of trying to see between the interference lines for a split second on the cable box....