Body Double (40th Anniversary Steelbook) (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
I have been a fan of the thriller genre for a long as I can remember. Whether it’s a mystery, or a police thriller, or a chase film, the genre has often been one I lovingly revisit as much as I can. You cannot mention the thriller genre without mentioning Alfred Hitchcock and the same can be said for the man who often tries to emulate the iconic director by making his own iconic films: Brian DePalma. Though DePalma has made everything from dramas to comedy to musicals, his biggest or most loved films tend to be his thrillers. There are the earlier films like Sisters and Carrie that are fantastic films made with small budgets that continuously endure to fans. The 80’s happened and after the failure of Blow Out, A shock even now, because the film is a masterpiece, and the polarizing nature of Scarface, it was time for another thriller from the auteur. Released 40 years ago, Body Double also was released to unsure critics and audiences. Read more about all the sleazy fun below and don’t miss the in-depth look at the technical side of this 40th Anniversary 4K UHD Blu-ray edition!
Film: 
As Body Double opens, we happen upon Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) who is in the middle of filming a horror film. He’s a vampire in the film and in the coffin, he finds himself overcome and unable to act. Forced to take a break from the shoot, Jake goes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man. After a particularly troubling acting class and a rough night on his friend’s floor, Jake reunites with a possible friend, Sam (Gregg Henry) who offers him a housesitting job that happens to be long term. Once they head to the opulent hillside home, the pair watch a woman through a telescope. She’s dancing and showing off in the open windows. Jake, unable to resist goes for another watch later in the evening. This time he sees the woman being pushed and slapped but there’s very little he can do.
The next day, he’s driven to find out more about the woman and learns she is Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton, voiced by Helen Shaver), and that he is extremely attracted to her. After a long time of following her, she gives up running and the two have a dreamlike encounter filled with passion and some erotic energy. After the woman ends up murdered, Jake takes it upon himself to find out who did it and why they did it. This leads him to the adult film industry and particularly Holly Body (Melanie Griffith in a Golden Globe nominated performance), who is all business and not looking for trouble, but seems to want to help Jake.
With the plot basics out of the way, now I can dive into my appreciation of Body Double. First, the film is a blatant homage to Hitchcock. Its storyline borrows from both Rear Window and Vertigo liberally and this is a lot of fun for Hitchcock fans to dive into. From the ornate and dialogue free scenes of Jake following Gloria or the voyeurism that is at the very heart of the film, it’s as if Brian DePalma made it a point to put all the Hitchcockian goodness he has loved since seeing those beloved masterpieces and put them into one film. Does this mean a bad copy? Definitely not. The film is also very much of its era, with 80’s excess in quite a bit of the film too. This is not large-scale Brian DePalma and that’s a good thing too. The film wastes no time getting to the nitty gritty, instead choosing to toy with the viewer.
There are some fake-outs and double-crosses in the film too. The Sam character almost always feels like he’s setting Jake up and as Jake is following Gloria around, a man with a scarred and very fake looking face also follows her. Could it be Sam? What does this man, known as “The Indian” in the film, want? Is this Sam in disguise and who’s also a murderer? This brings us to Holly Body. She is an enigma on her own. As this character, Melanie Griffith commands the screen with her baby doll voice and headstrong businesswoman façade. There’s not a moment when she feels inauthentic in her role and the little moments where she can go off and have that quiet power are wonderful to witness. As the movie begins to wind up for the finale, she has some incredible moments that are thrilling and, in some cases, quite funny too. The film does use humor and camp to nail some comical points too. Not all thrillers are meant to just give you anxiety or stress, and this one also takes time to poke fun at Hollywood. The adult film industry gets the most barbs, but it’s all in good fun.
When we look back to the Hitchcock references, Jake especially played by Craig Wasson emulates a James Stewart like safety. Even if the film has more violence, sex and foul language in it than any Hitchcock film, that James Stewart feel from the male lead gives you so much to hang your cares onto. As he pursues his un-getable woman, you still hope he can get the girl. This is not unlike James with Grace Kelly or Kim Novak. The same can be said for Jake with Holly Body or Gloria. There are camera angles, crane shots, rear projection moments and more visual techniques that tie this to Hitchcock as well. We can’t forget a great chunk of the Pino Donaggio score that also swells into your ears like the great Bernard Herrmann’s music might’ve in a Vertigo or North by Northwest. It’s kind of marvelous how much homage is packed into the film.
But what about Body Double you ask? It’s fascinating, fast, freaky and funny. There are thrills and tension but then you get moments of subtle comedy. These little touches make the film stand out from other “erotic thrillers” of the day. There are brains to this film. And the moments that shocked audiences in 1984, namely the sex and violence, were more than likely placed there to do just that – shock people. While these moments feel tame today, even in our more reformed state of sensitivity, it’s a blast to see so much that probably felt gratuitous in the 80’s. I’ve said it plenty, but the film is also a must watch for Melanie Griffith. No offense to any other actors in the film, but she steals the show! Look out for DePalma regular Dennis Franz in another small role that’ll make you chuckle too!
For me, Body Double sits right up there with Blow Out and Dressed To Kill as Brian DePalma’s best thrillers. The film is made as a love letter to his greatest professional inspiration, Alfred Hitchcock, and so fans of both thrillers and Hitchcock have a film full of easter eggs to look at. The film also acts as an exercise in definitively 80’s style, that is even more fun to take in now as the film celebrates its 40thAnniversary. Now that we have a new definitive 4K UHD version to love, I hope the film widens its audience even more. It’s a shock to me that this movie wasn’t well received critically or commercially, when watching it now, it’s impossible not to have so much fun with the film. This thriller is one that should not be missed!
Video:
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Layers: BD-100
HDR: Dolby Vision
Clarity/Detail: Body Double arrives at home for the first time in 4K with an excellent looking 4K transfer. Previously used for a UK Blu-ray, the transfer is only bettered by HDR. The film has a healthy layer of grain that brings out details. Overall, the look of the film is sharp and fully realized. This may even look better than the film ever has!
Depth: I can’t recall seeing anything that wasn’t fully in focus and beautifully rendered. The film was lovingly photographed and well preserved, and I don’t recall anything directly soft going on while watching the film over. In comparison to the 2016 Blu-ray I owned the better resolution only enhances the depth of each shot.
Black Levels: Black levels are nice and deep. Clothing and textures benefit from the great black levels as do moments filmed at night.
Color Reproduction: Colors in the film are of the decidedly 80’s variety, but they are warm and supple a lot of the time. Blues and greens translate quite lovely as well. The reds, oranges and other warm tones look best. Even Holly’s nearly white blonde hair looks exceptional!
Flesh Tones: Skin tones look natural from start to finish.
Noise/Artifacts: Grain may bother some, but for me this just makes things look excellent and authentic.
Audio:
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French Mono, German Mono, Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0, Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono, Spanish Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English SDH, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai and Turkish.
Dynamics: Body Double goes all the way in 4K with a Dolby Atmos mix! The film gets some added heft from more speakers and the music score also benefits big time from the new mix!
Height: Music is the main attraction in the height channels. Hearing the score coming down on you in moments of tension adds to your own unease as you watch the film. As Jake and Sam take the gondola up to the hillside house, you hear crickets all over the room. This is especially apparent in the height speakers.
Low-Frequency Extension: Music makes the most of the LFE channel, with Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax sounding meatier than ever.
Surround Sound Presentation: Surrounds work their magic with ambience indoors and outdoors and in moments where more than a few people are present. There are also plenty of off-screen sounds, and music of course.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue sounds great throughout!
Extras: 
Extras for Body Double are newly unearthed EPK interviews from the cast and crew. We also get the legacy features from the Body Double DVD and MOD Blu-ray releases from Sony. If you own the UK Imprint edition you may want to hang onto it for the features missing from that release along with the booklet that came with the first pressing. You collectors know how that is…
What’s here is welcome, but one would hope we’d be able to get the other features from the Imprint release, just for some added depth for extras.
Summary:
After 40 years, I feel like it’s high time for Body Double to get some love. DePalma fans love it, and the thriller audience of the world deserves to see it and find out its unwieldy pleasures. The film is equal parts thriller, mystery, erotic film and satire all rolled into one. Performances are fantastic, and this new 4K UHD Blu-ray is excellent looking and sounding! The new steelbook with the original poster art, a great portrait of Melanie as Holly and another insert shot of Griffith make this one that collectors will savor if they love original poster art. Despite the missing special features (no doubt gone because of licensing…), I can’t recommend this new edition of Body Double enough. The thriller fanatic in me has a very full heart having this in my collection now!
