Intertexuality Continued

Intertexuality Continued

Intertexuality is the term to describe when certain aspects of a film are borrowed into other films. The use of borrowing builds link between films, Intertexuality can build comparisons between films and reveal things to the audience for example the genre of the film can be revealed through the Intertexuality installed in the film, as the audience may see this relates to another film they have seen.

I have shown how ‘Fatal Attraction’ borrows from thriller classic ‘PHYSCO’. But ‘PHYCHO’ has also influenced films such as ‘The Stepfather’, ‘What Lies Beneath’ and ‘Succubus’ (Succubus is a student thriller).

What Lies Beneath

Aspects borrowed from ‘PSYCHO’: In this film the women is taken from another room into the bathroom. There are two similarities. The first is that in both films the main characters move from one place into the bathroom. The second is that they main part in both scenes takes place within the bathroom. Furthermore the sound of water leads up to a climax where the attack happens. The sound of water may be a signal to us to show us that attack is evident. Moreover the bathroom setting further reinforces this. The last similarity is that women are the victims and they could be a stereotypes outlining they are vulnerable, or the fact men are the attackers shows men the dominant attackers in thrillers.

The Stepfather

Aspects borrowed from ‘PSYCHO’: The Stepfather is about a man who transfers from household to household attacking the families involved, he targets single mothers with children. This film too has an identical setting to ‘PSYCHO’ in the sense that both attacks take place in a bathroom. This shows that in thrillers there are some aspects that will appear in many of them. Additionally camera movement is similar, when the man is stabbed he falls backwards into the shower curtain, this resembles ‘PSYCHO’ as in the classic thriller the women after being attacked also fall into the shower curtain, and the camera zooms out as we see them from a long shot as there life dims out. Also although the man is one attacked in the end in ‘Stepfather he was the original aggressor and attacker, consequently the theme of making women victims is continued. Lastly a shiny knife is used in both films so

Succubus (Student thriller)

In this film the students use the shiny knife as the murder weapon which is also used in ‘PSYCHO’. The blood in the shower also relates to the blood in ‘PSYCHO’ when the woman is attacked.  The trend of the bathroom being the seeing of attacks continues, and the music in both films is similar. However one difference is that in ‘PSYCHO’ the woman is the victim but in ‘Succubus’ the woman is the attacker so the roles have been reversed as the women attacks the man.