INTERTEXTUALITY

Occasionally, films will 'borrow' from each other. These borrowed factors such as camera angles, mise en scene, sound and methods of editing can be noticed by the audience and is what they expect. This concept is known as intertextuality.

Having familiarized myself with the term, I moved onto watching a very well known 'bathroom' clip from Psycho and then noting the different aspects from the film that have been 'borrowed' from it. 

I watched clips from What Lies Beneath, Fatal Attraction, The Stepfather and Succubus (a student thriller). I noticed that each film (excluding Succubus) had 'borrowed' the basic idea of a white themed bathroom containing a white bath tub, with a specific shower head and shower curtain. 

Other similarities: 

• Similar, if not the same knife
• The character sliding down the tiles after being stabbed
• Bath robes
• The hand/arm shots
• Close ups of the knife
• The curtains being ripped off the rails
• Fast pace during the attacks
• The diegetic sound of the water in the shower

Many films use intertexuality and audiences usually expect that in films. For example in Harry Potter, the characters sprint through the woods to escape, however always come face to face with danger. Similarly Twilight has scenes that imitate a character is running through the woods but faces danger.