Murder a la Mod (1968)

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

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)

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