Interest of use of ‘Intertextuality’ in Films

Intertextuality is a visual reference between films. This could be seen as borrowing from one film to one another. This could be done by maybe recognised through certain camera angles, snippet of sound or the way something ids edited. I find this quite interesting to see how different films tend to borrow certain areas from one another. It almost builds a relationship between the films. 

Example 1: What Lies Beneath

We see that the lady is not about to move. This makes the lady seem to be very vulnerable and helpless. As usual, we then see the killer (man) taking advantage of the situation by laying her down onto the bath, waiting for her death. This is similar to ‘Psycho’ as both the murders in both films takes place in the bathroom and both women and the victim to the killing and the men is the murderer.

Example 2: The Stepfather

In this film, we see the man getting attacked in the bathroom which leads him stumbling backwards and falling into the bath whilst pulling down the shower curtain. This is reflected to the film ‘Psycho’ as well because they both have the same shot and angle of when us, the audience, see the hooks of the shower unhooking from the pole. This is a use of Intertextuality as well. 

Example 3: Succubus

In this student film, we see a young girl which goes to the boy’s locker room. She seems to smell the victims clothing before the climactic scene and seems to be sexually doing movements against the wall of the shower cubicle that the boy is in. Suddenly the girl stabs the boy continuously, not missing a beat. This relates to ‘Psycho’ as we see the killer killing the woman several times and does this continuously. They are both in a way, in the positioned in the same angle as we can see in both films, the victim being attacked and we can also see the stabbing taking place.