In the earlier years of his career Dario Argento used to be referred to as the Italian Hitchcock. So it's not altogether surprising that this latter day made-for-TV thriller is a direct homage to the great British director. Do You Like Hitchcock? is the most playful film that Argento has ever made and it is constructed more or less as a means of referencing material from several Hitchcock classics such as Rear Window (voyeuristic protagonist, the apartments, the girlfriend endangering herself while the broken legged boyfriend watches on), Strangers on a Train (the murder set up theory), Dial M for Murder (the second murder set up theory), Psycho (the protagonist in the shower while something sinister occurs, the bathroom attack) and Vertigo (the thrilling rooftop sequence). I guess because it is a film so committed to paying homage, its plot becomes almost secondary and even a bit clunky. But if you can get past this – and the particularly bad dubbing and dialogue – you could have a pretty good time.
The story has a murder being committed in the apartment across the street from a voyeuristic film student whose love of Hitchcock thrillers leads him to believe he knows who the murderer is. Because of its TV origins and in keeping with its Hitchcock influence it puts more emphasis on suspense than on gore. There are a couple of violent scenes but nothing in comparison to the kind of thing Argento is normally associated with. On the other hand, there are some genuinely well-handled suspense scenes; in particular, a climatic sequence on a rooftop was quite thrilling. There is even a little smattering of nudity thrown in for good measure which in all honesty is never exactly a terrible thing. All-in-all, this is a reasonably entertaining if minor effort from Argento. It has to be put into a little bit of context though, given that it's a TV movie and should not in all seriousness be compared too much to his earlier feature films. This one is a light diversion but it's not too bad at all.
The story has a murder being committed in the apartment across the street from a voyeuristic film student whose love of Hitchcock thrillers leads him to believe he knows who the murderer is. Because of its TV origins and in keeping with its Hitchcock influence it puts more emphasis on suspense than on gore. There are a couple of violent scenes but nothing in comparison to the kind of thing Argento is normally associated with. On the other hand, there are some genuinely well-handled suspense scenes; in particular, a climatic sequence on a rooftop was quite thrilling. There is even a little smattering of nudity thrown in for good measure which in all honesty is never exactly a terrible thing. All-in-all, this is a reasonably entertaining if minor effort from Argento. It has to be put into a little bit of context though, given that it's a TV movie and should not in all seriousness be compared too much to his earlier feature films. This one is a light diversion but it's not too bad at all.