#Alfred hitchcock vertigo movie

The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson, who has retired because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo (a false sense of rotational movement). The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts ( From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac. What a Vertigo homage should be throughout, in other words VerdictĪn ambitious, original idea marred by a lack of meaningful choices and two-dimensional characters.Vertigo is a 1958 American film noir psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. It represents that early point in the game where the characters haven’t settled into their respective stereotypes and the ambiguity of their budding relationship still charges every look, word, and facial expression with multiple interpretations. HighlightĮd and Faye’s unlikely meet-cute is playfully compelling. A shame that it fails to capture its inspiration’s ambiguity and depth. Pendulo’s meticulousness in establishing a connection to the film that goes beyond mere allusion is commendable: like the film, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo teems with echoes, recurring visual motifs, borrowed identities, and a blurring of the boundaries that separate objective reality from the projections of an unsettled mind. And, despite the ostensible interest in the way trauma nurtures one’s worst tendencies, the duplicitous blonde at the heart of the conspiracy is portrayed as an irredeemable monster throughout, her own formative experiences relegated to an afterthought. The local deputy’s shift from agreeable country lad to loose cannon lacks motivation. Ed berates his stoical therapist with the unprompted malice of a Bond villain. Worse, characterisation remains skin-deep – quite the irony for a game so invested in the exploration of the human psyche. Here, every dialogue choice, every QTE feels tangential to a story that marches inexorably towards its predetermined narrative beats. For all their other flaws, recent interactive movies like House of Ashes or Detroit: Become Human charge your performance with stakes, a mistimed keystroke or hasty reply incurring major repercussions. While the game is neatly presented and some of the dialogue – especially in low-key moments – can be quite engaging, the dilemmas you’re presented with feel trivial. The story unfolds in the familiar Telltale template, focusing on dialogue, light QTE sequences, and the search for interactive hotspots to provide illuminations that propel the narrative forward.īut the model is adopted only partially. It’s an intriguing setup that we dive into from various angles, primarily through therapist Julia Lomas who persuades Ed to dig into the truth about his childhood, and Sheriff Nick Reyes, whose investigations uncover a murder that may be linked to the baffling affair. Two things of note: first, the circumstances of the tragedy replicate another accident that, decades earlier, claimed the lives of his parents and baby sister second, nobody’s ever seen the wife and daughter whose deaths he purports to have caused. Both protagonists suffer from a fear of heights, though Pendulo sets its story in the present day and substitutes James Stewart’s cop with Ed Miller, a young novelist whose guilt leaves him bedridden after an accident in which his family plunged off a cliff. With Vertigo, Pendulo Studios attempts to dissect a timeless classic for themes and preoccupations it can repurpose into something completely new.Ĭhief among them is the 1958 thriller’s interest in psychoanalysis, the plumbing of subconscious depths to uncover repressed memories, and how the vulnerable individuals tormented by such can be manipulated by unscrupulous acquaintances.

#Alfred hitchcock vertigo movie

A spin-off from what’s widely regarded as the greatest movie ever made was always going to be a tall order.