Pacific Heights (1990)
Directed by John Schlesinger
A couple works hard to renovate their dream house and become landlords to pay for it. Unfortunately one of their tenants has plans of his own.
3 connections found
View:
3 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Pacific Heights to
Anyone old enough to remember Michael Keaton, Matthew Modine, and Melanie Griffith in John Schlesinger’s yuppie horror effort Pacific Heights will catch a similar vibe in what Edgerton is after.
The television spots and trailers sell the film as a stalker thriller akin to films such as Pacific Heights and Fatal Attraction.
In staging that setup, Edgerton -- who makes his writing and directing debut behind the camera while also appearing in front of it -- harkens back to the domestic intruder thrillers of the 1980s and '90s -- such as "Pacific Heights," "Fatal Attraction" and so on -- where a seemingly good-natured and friendly enough person turns into a living nightmare for those he or she bugs, stalks and ultimately terrorizes.
The Gift recalls the stalked, terrorized or targeted yuppies of Fatal Attraction and Pacific Heights.
At face value, Edgerton’s film about a suspicious oddball intruding upon a married couple’s carefully manicured life sounds akin to serviceable stalker schlock like “Pacific Heights,” “Unlawful Entry” or “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.”
This is no basic Hollywood thriller like, say, John Schlesinger’s Pacific Heights (1990).
This literally ain’t the half of it, but it should give you some idea of the bravado of Aronofsky’s maximalist approach that his film can refer so directly to schlockbusters and old classics alike, often in the same shaky breath: There’s “The Innocents,” Poe‘s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Repulsion,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Rebecca” scattered throughout, but there’s also a good helping of “Pacific Heights” and “The Skeleton Key.”
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (nanny from Hell), Unlawful Entry (cop from Hell), Pacific Heights (landlord from Hell), to name just three.