Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when one scene from a films is used in other films. It may not be the whole scene but some type of method may be seen in another film. A scene that is used a lot by other films it the shower scene from the 1960 'Psycho'.

This is the scene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

The scene has been used in the movie 'What Lies Beneath'. In the scene we see a man carrying a woman to the shower and he is talking to her but she cannot move or

answer back because he has given her some type of drug. He turns on the cold water and leaves the shower running. Aspects that have been borrowed from 'Psycho' is the running shower, the bathroom scene and the man v woman.

Another movie that uses this scene is 'Fatal Attraction'. In the movie we see a man walk towards a woman's house and knock on the door. Once she opens it he pushes the door open and he starts chasing her. They start fighting and the woman runs into the bathroom then they carry on fighting until the get to the kitchen.

The man then starts to strangle the woman, but then gives up. Once he lets go she grabs a knife to stab him. The aspects taken from 'Psycho' is the loud music just when she is about to stab him, the bathroom, the kitchen knife and the man v woman.

'The Stepfather' uses the 'Psycho' scene, when David is trying to kill Susan so she runs into the bathroom. As David is trying to open the door the mirror breaks and Susan picks up a piece of the broken glass.

She then stabs David in the neck and he falls into the shower. Aspects used here are the stabbing, the bathroom scene, man v woman and when David falls into the shower and pulls the shower curtain down with him.

Lastly a few A-Level students decided to use the 'Psycho' scene as their inspiration. They created a movie called succubus, where a man is having a shower and a woman walks in, takes her hair out of a ponytail, smells his jacket and then stabs the man. She then leaves. The borrowed aspects are the loud music and the stabbing in the shower. The man v woman role was reversed in this movie because it is the man who is stabbed.