Underplayed Gems

Murder a la Mod (1968)

Murder a la Mod poster
Original title
Murder à la Mod
Directed by
Brian De Palma
Genre
comedy film, crime film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 20m
Rating
4.6 of 10 from 27 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A model steals from a friend to impress her fiancé, but ends up murdered. The film then follows a confusing second death tied to a prank gone wrong.

quirkylow-budgetexperimentalmanipulativeplayfultensedarkly comic

What happens

Murder a la Mod is a 1968 American film directed by Brian De Palma in his first feature film as a director and writer. An experimental, low-budget murder-mystery, it was shot on black-and-white 16mm film. Following its limited theatrical release, the film was rarely seen until its reissue on DVD in 2006. In the film, model Karen steals money and jewelry from her friend Tracy, with the intention to offer the stolen items to her fiancé Christopher. She is instead murdered, with her murder recorded in a snuff film. Her re-animated corpse seemingly kills Christopher, though it turns out that the second murder was the result of a miscalculation in a prank. De Palma retrospectively described the film as "a sophisticated thriller patterned after Psycho ... It has many weaknesses and strengths. It's both good and bad". Later critics have also noted the influence of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.