Intertextuality

Intertexuality is used by a lot of films, its when an iconic idea of a existing film is borrowed and used in a new film, this may be done because that particular thing was very iconic and made a strong impression in the film and the new directors want to mimic the success. Another reason is to link back to the original film which may have been a classic film. These things could be plot, setting, camera, mise en scene and even character
an example of this is from well-known thriller film ‘psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock. This film is very famous and was made in the infancy of the thriller genre, in the shower scene  the main character in having a shower in a normal white bathroom with a retro looking shower head and shower curtains. As she washes you can hear the shower in the background and then suddenly the anonymous killer comes and stabs her repeatedly with a kitchen knife. She then falls to the floor taking the shower curtain with her as blood drains down the bath. The last shot is one zooming from her eye.

many films have borrowed key aspects of this scene for example the film ‘fatal attraction’ uses the bathroom and the knife even though the scene is a bit different it still relates back to the psycho scene.

another example is the film ‘the roommate’ even though it’s not as similar as fatal attraction it still holds some borrowed stuff like the girl, mysterious figure, and of course the shower.