Hitchcock going off half-cocked

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2004)

I watched 'Identity' literally back-to-back, and coincidentally, with 'Psycho', the seminal slasher movie that brought serial killing into movie-goer's consciousness.
Homage is perhaps the kindest thing to say about Identity. In its desire to produce a Hitchcockian thriller worthy of the Matrix generation, it throws in the iconography of the director, from the very root of its singular Motel location to the multiple personalities of its pro-antagonist.
I say post-Matrix, as once the clichÃ© was to talk about the MTV generation, which derived from hi-octane visuals for low-attention span viewers, superficial meaning, artifice.
'Identity' is all these things, whilst retaining the additional right to use any outrageous plot twist to justify the accepted rules of physics and Artistotelian storytelling. In this case, revealing to the user about halfway through the film that the filmworld exists entirely in the mind of a deathrow serial killer who has assembled his 10 identities in one place to resolve his inner conflict.
The revelation of the plot twist is seductive - just at the point where the viewer is becoming cheesed off with how stupid the plot twists are, the audacious and neatly contrived plot theme is unveiled. However it is totally contrived - multiple personality in itself does not permit someone to live in an entirely fictive state. Plus in any imagined universe, the freedom of the author to mess around with physics and logicality without restraint becomes a big bore. Whilst Identity doesn't go on long enough to do that, it's ultimately an escapist fantasy slasher - not really a film about the mind of a serial killer. 'Psycho' is much more nutritious and thought-provoking, and scary, in its banality and realism.
Despite the care that has been taken to get the setting and atmospheric, and effects right, Psycho is a much more powerful film visually, even in black and white. The lingering shower shot, Janet Leigh's glassy eye are much more powerful and memorable images than Identity's rain-soaked exteriors and hack-and-slash shock stills.