Top 10 Hitchcockian Films

When a movie is hailed as Hitchcockian, it should be taken as a badge of honor. Such a label means the film deserves to live in the shadow of Hitchcock’s revelatory tone and atmosphere. Below are my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films that Alfred Hitchcock never actually made. They’re ranked in terms of their “Hitchcockianness,” and they are just a few of many films to choose from. If I’ve omitted a Hitchcockian film you love, do feel free to share it.

Honorable Mention

Basic Instinct (1992)
dir. by Paul Verhoeven

Just hear me out. If ol’ Hitch ever ventured into the psycho-sexual side of suspense, I think he would’ve made something very similar to Basic Instinct. The melodramatic set pieces, the brazen music, the Dutch-angled cinematography – it all fits snuggly into the Hitchcock canon.

10. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
dir. by David Mamet

The central conflict in many of David Mamet’s films is clearly influenced by Hitchcock. The Spanish Prisoner must be the best example. It’s a film about an innocent man trying to clear his name of an elaborate con. There’s a loyal woman involved, a crucial MacGuffin (an object, device or idea that serves as a trigger for the plot), and a twist ending. It’s Mamet at his best, and, certainly, his most Hitchcockian.

9. The Game (1997) & Panic Room (2002)
dir. by David Fincher

I couldn’t decide which David Fincher film to include here, so I’m offering two as examples. The Game is essentially the type of man-on-the-run thriller (with a modern twist) that Hitchcock loved so much, while Panic Room expertly captures the physical claustrophobia that Hitchcock was fascinated by. Both are often regarded as “lesser” Fincher films (though not by me), but, nevertheless, they feel right at home here.

8. Red Lights (2004)
dir. by Cédric Kahn

Cédric Kahn’s ingenious French thriller, Red Lights, never attracted much of an audience, but it’s one of the best Hitchcockian films made in the last decade. While a husband and wife drive through rural France en route to pick up their children from summer camp, his constant drinking and her incessant nagging force them to separate. He assumes his wife simply got frustrated and took the train. But what if something worse, something horrible, something deadly has happened? What if.

7. Wait Until Dark (1967)
dir. by Terence Young

Hitchcock popularized the concept of the MacGuffin, which, as I briefly explained above, is an idea, object or device that is used in part to motivate the plot of the film. The uranium in Notorious, the money is Psycho, the rope in Rope, the spare key in Dial M for Murder, and on and on. The heroin-filled doll in Wait Until Dark is one of my favorite MacGuffins not featured in an actual Hitchcock film. There is plenty more to love about Wait Until Dark (I think it contains Audrey Hepburn’s best work) but its use of the MacGuffin concept is dead-on Hitchcockian.

6. Dressed to Kill (1980)
dir. by Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma is by long and far the most Hitchcockian of contemporary filmmakers. His cinematic style so closely mirrors Hitch’s, often by making direct connections with just one of Hitchcock’s films specifically. Dressed to Kill, for example, is De Palma’s Psycho. And while De Palma’s film doesn’t nearly rival that Hitch masterpiece, Dressed to Kill is a damn worthy Hitchcockian thriller all the same.

5. The Vanishing (1988)
dir. by George Sluizer

One of my favorite Hitchcock films was one of his last, the London-set murder mystery, Frenzy. It’s unlike any film Hitchcock made, and arguably his most violent and brutal. It’s also a very callous movie, equipped with a distinct pessimism that reminds me of the fantastic Dutch film, The Vanishing. Had Hitch made The Vanishing, it would’ve been him at his most cruel, which is a quality I always enjoyed watching Hitch explore.

4. Charade (1963)
dir. by Stanley Donen

Charade is one of the few films on this list that was made and released during Hitchcock’s heyday. I can easily imagine Hitch snagging the rights to the material and bringing this film (about a widow on the run from three of her husband’s former colleagues) to life. Either way, Stanley Donen did a fine job, as Charade is a wildly entertaining film with excellent performances from Audrey Hepburn and Hitchcock vet Cary Grant.

3. Tell No One (2006)
dir. Guillaume Canet

Without question, Tell No One is my favorite modern Hitchcock film. Since discovering this film years ago, I’ve done everything in my power to get as many people to see it as I can. The movie tells the story of a man named Alex, whose wife was mysteriously murdered eight years ago. On one seemingly random day, Alex receives an email from his wife, saying she’s still alive. And we’re off and running. Tell No One is a man-on-the-run/whodunit hybrid that I absolutely adore. Seriously, this film is brilliant. See it as soon as possible (it’s currently on Netflix Instant!).

2. Body Double (1984)
dir. by Brian De Palma

Body Double is the most Brian De Palmaian film Brian De Palma has made, which is, of course, another way of saying it is the most Hitchcockian film of De Palma’s career. A perfect blend of Rear Window and Vertigo, De Palma spends much of Body Double simply observing his characters observing other people. Hitch always loved to spy, and Body Double is a worthy reminder of that.

1. Les Diaboliques (1955)
dir. by Henri-Georges Clouzot

As legend tells it, Alfred Hitchcock had every intention of turning Boileau-Narcejac’s novel “Celle qui n'était plus,” into a film, but he missed the opportunity when Henri-Georges Clouzot secured the rights to book mere hours before Hitchcock could. In Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques, a wife plots to murder her cruel husband with the help of her husband’s mistress. The film is a staple of suspense cinema, and damn near as fine as anything Hitchcock ever made. Would Hitchcock have done better with the material? My guess is the results would’ve been nearly equal, but hell, you tell me.

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