Dressed to Kill and 3 Other Cult Slashers Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
These movies are the pinnacle of the slasher genre.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is still considered the most important film in the director's career. Many filmmakers agree that Psycho was the forerunner of the slasher genre and predicted the future development of the industry.
Here are four outstanding films that were inspired in one way or another by Hitchcock's masterpiece.
1. Dressed to Kill, 1980
No director has been more influenced by Hitchcock's work than Brian De Palma. Unloved by critics and viewers, but a cult classic nonetheless, Dressed to Kill is a kind of ode to Psycho.
Like Norman Bates, Michael Caine's Dr. Robert Elliot commits crimes while disguised as a woman. The emotionally restrained but chilling scene of a razor murder in an elevator is almost as striking as Hitchcock's famous shower scene.
The son of the deceased, who witnessed the incident, tries to solve the case and find the suspected criminal, which leads to new unexpected twists.
2. Black Christmas, 1974
Bob Clark's Black Christmas is one of the few slashers that managed to maintain a recognizable holiday atmosphere. In the movie, a serial killer under the influence of perverted fantasies stalks several girls at once.
Released in 1974, Black Christmas was inspired not only by Psycho and Peeping Tom, but also by the Italian giallo, a European offshoot of horror created by Dario Argento.
Like Psycho, Black Christmas is a pervasive mix of violence and eroticism, while the face and identity of the criminal is always off-screen, a mystery to the audience.
3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 1974
Leatherface from Tobe Hooper's famous horror franchise was created in the image and likeness of Ed Gein, a serial killer who operated in the middle of the last century.
Few people know that Gein also served as the prototype for the character of Norman Bates, the main antagonist of Psycho. Hooper not only borrows Hitchcock's idea, but takes it to a new level by adding more cinematic cruelty to the madman's character.
The knife becomes a chainsaw, and a leather mask appears on the brutalized face. Where Psycho fumbled with the mechanics of the slasher, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre brought it to life.
4. Halloween, 1978
The original Halloween, directed by John Carpenter in 1978, officially finished what Alfred Hitchcock had started, turning the slasher film into a full-fledged cinematic genre.
The simple but memorable theme song, the first-person opening shots, the strong female lead played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the ingenious use of lighting, and the eerily faceless figure of Mike Myers defined the slasher film as it exists today.