Characteristics

Elements considered Hitchcockian include:

• Climactic plot twist.
• The cool platinum blonde .
• The presence of a mother in someone’s life
• An innocent man accused.
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension (eg Lifeboat , Rear Window , Rope ).
• Characters who can not be trusted.
• Tension building through suspense to the point where the audience enjoys the character in a life-threatening situation (eg Vertigo , the windmill scene in Foreign Correspondent ).
• Average people thrust into strange or dangerous situations (eg North by Northwest , The Man Who Knew Too Much ).
• Bumbling or incompetent authority figures, particularly police officers.
• Use of darkness to symbolize impending doom (dark clothing, shadows, smoke, etc.)
• Strong visual use of famous landmarks ( Statue of Liberty , Mount Rushmore , Forth Rail Bridge , Golden Gate Bridge , Albert Hall , the British Museum , Piccadilly Circus , etc.)
• Mistaken identity (eg North by Northwest , The Wrong Man ).
• The use of a staircase has a motive for impending danger or suspense.
• Use of a macguffin plot device (which is unexplained (eg the microfilm in North by Northwest ).
• (Eg Dial M for Murder , Alfred Hitchcock Presents ).

Notable examples

Some movies, or movies with scenes, considered Hitchcockian include:

Filmmakers

The following is a list of filmmakers who have directed multiple Hitchcockian films:

• Dario Argento ^[39]
• Park Chan-wook ^[40]
• Henri-Georges Clouzot ^[41]
• Brian De Palma ^[42]

Movies by country

Australia

• Roadgames (1981) ^[43]
• Alexandra’s Project (2003) ^[44]
• Coffin Rock (2009) ^[45]
• Crawl (2011) ^[46] [47]
• Blame (2011) ^[48] .
• Bad Blood (2017) ^[49]

Britain

• Peeping Tom (1960) ^[50]

France

• The Vanishing (1988) ^[51] [52]
• She (2016) ^[53]
• Personal Shopper (2016) ^[54]

Germany

• Unknown (2011) ^{[55] [56] [57] [58]}

Spain

• Buried (2010) ^[59]

See also

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Alfred Hitchcock filmography

References