Body Double (1984)

Jake Scully is an actor in a slump. He can't get or keep a job, his girlfriend has been cheating on him and to cap it all off, he suffers from crippling claustrophobia. Things seem to be looking up when a friend from his acting class offers him a cushy housesitting gig, where he finds himself besotted by a beautiful neighbour. After seeing her being abused, he tries to intervene, only to get drawn into a mysterious and violent world where the rules seem to be constantly in motion.

This may not quite be the biggest Hitchcock ripoff Brian de Palma's ever made*, but Body Double is probably the most de Palma movie he ever made, an erotic film noir that asks the audience to examine their own voyeuristic tendencies as they judge Scully for his. The movie itself is often ludicrous but never less than watchable, and it has at least two absolute crackerjack scenes.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B6KEJD605M

This is showing as part of Violet Hour, the Castle's season of LA neo film noirs flicks. Tickets available here, I'm in D4. Let's grab a drink in their lovely bar at half eight and head in after that.

*That would be 1976's Obssession. Check out the trailer if you don't believe me.