The Original Erotic Thriller

All those low budget erotic thrillers that air late night on Cinemax (aka Skin-e-max) owe a big debt to Body Double. The film got very little attention when it first came out. It was seen as another one of DePalma's Hitchcock homages or ripoffs (depending on your viewpoint). Some may argue that DePalma's Dressed to Kill was the original but that was a much grander film with bigger stars. Body Double had a low budget, no stars (Melanie Griffith wasn't a star at this point), and a lot more sex than Dressed to Kill. Body Double really gained a following when it started airing late night on HBO and Cinemax. That provided producers the impetus to start making erotic thrillers, using Body Double as a template.