Intertextuality - "Relating to or deriving meaning from the interdependent ways in which texts stand in relation to each other"


Intertextuality is when aspects of certain films are borrowed and re-used. Films borrow scenes and ideas from other films.

The most famous scene that is "borrowed" from comes from the notorious 1960 thriller 'Psycho'. Although now the scene seems very fake and unprofessional, during the period it came out it seemed fantastic.

Examples:

What Lies Beneath

There is a scene in What Lies Beneath that resembles the shower scene in Psycho very strongly. The white bathtub, the shower head, the white tiles. Everything seems to be the same. However, the fact that he does not kill her and there is no knife involved makes it differ.

Fatal Attraction
There is also a scene in Fatal Attraction that borrows ideas from Psycho. There bathtub, curtain, tiles, shower head and even knife are almost identical. The shot when the woman slides down is also taken from Psycho.