Review of Dressed to Kill (1980) by Kevin D — 17 Jul 2010

Brian fucking De Palma! The fucking man! This guy might just be the greatest director to never win Best Director (I'm aware that De Palma's hero Alfred Hitchcock never won and the overrated Stanley Kubrick never won either). This is such a beautifully made movie. The movie is sexy and thrilling. The opening is pretty slow as we are introduced to a few main characters.

After a while I noticed something beautiful: De Palma started to tell the story of his movie without words. A good 20 minutes of this movie went silent and this was partially a silent film. A beautiful and relevant musical score played while we watched the characters' actions in a wonderful sequence. It's astonishing to watch the plot unfold in this movie. I loved how everything expanded. I want to reveal a few spoilers so badly, but I just can't.

The plot unfolds in perfect fashion and the characters were amazing. De Palma's screenplay was to die for. This is a slasher/mystery film that will fool you (it sure got me). It is about the murderer's pursuit to kill and the ensuing investigation to find the murderer's identity. The movie is also extremely scary. I jumped twice and on another occasion I was literally scared for my life. I literally thought the murderer had got me (for those who have seen the film, I'm referring to the mirror scene near the end). Leave it to Brian De Palma to show off his great camera moves to invoke scares from the audience.

When I first heard of this movie, I thought it was just a dumb early horror movie from De Palma. It's not. At that point in his career he already made the 1976 classic Carrie. De Palma was at the top of his form in Dressed to Kill. This is a true De Palma movie. I was also shocked to find out that Michael Caine starred in this movie because I figured that he didn't want to star in a horror film, but maybe he saw the cinematic brilliance in the movie and in Brian De Palma as well.

This is an erotic yet chilling, engrossing, and downright horrific horror movie from one of the greatest directors ever. You're in for a treat in this fun movie. For those that claim this movie to be a Hitchcock ripoff, take a look at this: you have to admire a director for matching Hitchcock in style, but more importantly in mood and atmosphere. De Palma took that style and made his own movie with it.