How is it September already? 2020 feels like a constant blow to the head and it has sucked all the energy out of me so the concept of time has escaped me. That being said, let’s talk about domestic thrillers. First thing that comes to mind with this theme is home type setting. If this is not it, sorry, I can’t really pinpoint the actual theme that well then. So as you can tell I’m confused. And not really sure if I’m hitting the nail in the head with these picks but let’s hope I got the thriller part right.
3. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
Does noir count as thriller? I think it does, especially considering that the theme within the theme I’m trying to achieve here is classic Hollywood. Where else could I mention Sunset Boulevard? Other than the Across the Universe Podcast episode I watched it for. Anyway, this revolves around a big mansion and there’s a suspicious death. It also has a pretty colourful and a bit crazy older lady. All good things for a domestic thriller, right?!
2. REAR WINDOW (1954)
Going to go with two Hitchcock movies for my two top picks. I’d go with three if I could think of any other domestic type one. And if I’d seen the other ones. I think I have seen only two of his films, I know, a shame. Anyway, I would classify Rear Window as part of the domestic thrillers club because the main character is literally stuck in his apartment. Then he stalks other people which isn’t nice but it works for the purpose of the movie. This one surprised me. I probably didn’t love it but I did think the idea and the concept worked wonders.
1. PSYCHO (1960)
THIS AMAZING SERIES IS CREATED BY WANDERING THROUGH THE SHELVES
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Great choices!!! Love the first two and like Psycho a great deal. I think they all fit. Sunset Blvd. is such a fascinating beast of a film, while Holden and von Stroheim are fantastic the movie lives or dies on Norma Desmond and Gloria Swanson just delves so deeply into her fractured psyche.
Rear Window is my favorite Hitch film. He does so much with such a simple concept and assembled a great team to put it over.
Psycho is also brilliantly assembled I just think it’s a bit overpraised. Still it deserves its classic status.
I think both Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and Notorious would have worked here and if you haven’t seen them I’d highly recommend both along with North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train and Saboteur. The last isn’t considered in his top tier but I’ve always had a soft spot for it.
It was a bit confused about the theme at first wondering if domestic thriller might refer to a thriller set on the soil of your home country but I decided that it meant ones set in the home which looks like that was the right way to go.
We match! As I said Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock and one of my favorite films overall so I was glad to have a place to use it. My other two are ones I’m fond of but not at the same level.
Rear Window (1954)-Photo-journalist “Jeff” Jeffries, wheelchair bound because of a badly broken leg combats the boredom of being confined to his apartment by watching the activities of his neighbors though his rear window. Late one night he thinks he witnesses one of them, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), murder his wife but initially has trouble convincing anyone of the fact. Slowly with the help of his acerbic nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) and fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) he starts to put the pieces together but when Thorwald begins to suspect Jeff knows something the tables are dangerously turned.
Deceived (1991)-Art restorer Adrienne (Goldie Hawn) and museum curator Jack Saunders (John Heard) have a seemingly perfect life living in their restored New York City loft with their daughter Mary. But that life is thrown into turmoil when Jack’s boss dies under questionable circumstances. Jack starts acting strangely then suddenly leaves town purportedly on business raising Adrienne’s suspicions. Before he returns he is apparently killed in a car crash but when Adrienne files for his death benefits it turns out “Jack Saunders” died in a plane crash 20 years ago. So who was the man she married? As she searches for answers the truth becomes increasingly dark and very perilous.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)-Young Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and struggling actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move into a New York City apartment building of sinister repute. When their odd new neighbors, Roman and Minnie Castavet (Sidney Blackmer & Ruth Gordon) become overly familiar Rosemary tries to back away but Guy, suddenly successful, welcomes them. Rosemary, now pregnant, becomes increasingly isolated and the diabolical truth of the matter is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth. One of Roman Polanski’s best films permeated with a sense of dread.
Yay, I feel like this is the first time I get to recommend three movies you love/like! That’s a personal victory and we MATCH! My god, another great victory! I had the same confusion but I thought it would be super hard to recommend Estonian thrillers, we. have very few I’ve seen and no thrillers I could think.
Rear Window is indeed a great one, I love simple concept, one location movies. That’s why I have a soft spot for Phone Booth.
I didn’t think about those films at all. Still, damn… your choices are the best.
Awww, thank you so much! That means a lot. 🙂
Amazing picks! I haven’t seen the first one yet, but I wish I had thought to include either Rear Window or Psycho. Those are just perfect fits.
Thank you so much! For somebody who thought they had missed the mark with this one, I seemed to have been spot on. 😀
Love, love, love all your choices. Gloria Swanson was excellent as Norma and all the reality behind this film is put into scathing view from the Waxworks( Buster Keaton refused to see 5e film) to her home and that tile to Cecil B DeMille calling her Little Fellah which he did when he filmed her in a few movies back in the late teens early 20s. I love Rear Window which, is my second favourite film(next to Strangers on a Train). Watching lol the lives of these people, you realize you are the voyeur and we all know there Re many people who watch others on our own street. Psycho is such an excellent film fromthe famous scene you show to the ending and, if you watch closely, it shows Norm’s face, now his mom, with her skull over top his face and the huge chain, pulling out Marion’s car coming from his heart.
Thank you so much! I loved Psycho in a way that it didn’t feel dated.. Even tho I usually am not a fan of older movies, and black-and-white movies. I liked this one a lot.
Excellent picks! Not only the fit perfectly but they all are terrific films.
Thank you! I felt very proud myself. 😀
Oh yes you should definitely watch Bates Motel. That is more of a domestic thriller. Answers the question what is really going on in that creepy house above the motel?
Yes, it’s in my long list for sure!