Reality Flies Off

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2000)

I am not an appreciator of Hitchcock, at least not recently as I wade though reviewings of his work.
But this film is different. Many of his films dance on the edge of the surreal, and deal with a person or people swept up in events beyond their control. But here he tips well into another world and does it so artfully that we don't notice. I recall the film being touted as a horror film when first released, but it is not so. Horror depends on reality -- the more likely, the more threatening. Terror is another thing.
What is so skillful here is that no one behaves as people normally would, not even close. Yet no one remarks on that fact. Such a notice would be automatic in today's infatuation with irony and self-reference. So what makes this film so intriguing is that it is entirely without irony, non-modern even in the sense common in the 60's. This effect is amplified by the `studio' style of camera-work: stationary cameras and flat sets. Essentially all dialog is indoors.
Further: huge mysteries remain at the end of the film, about the cause of the supernatural, about the Oedipal characters, and of course about what happens next. World, people, story are all left open. How intelligent.
A side remark: once again in a Hitchcock film, minor actors outshine the main characters. But no matter. The effects, as with the sets, are cheesy, but rather than detracting, this adds to the unsettling unreality of the work.
This film is pretty disturbing all around.