The Hitchcockian inspiration behind Park Chan-wook’s ‘Stoker’
As Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut, Stoker made it clear that Alfred Hitchcock was a significant influence. From its plotline to its unsettling cast of characters, the film exudes a sense that a second, hidden story is lurking just out of reach. This influence is unsurprising, given that Hitchcock left an indelible mark on the murder mystery genre, known for his ability to take simple premises and infuse them with heightened stakes and psychological tension.
Of course, Stoker is far from the first film to borrow some steam from the master of suspense. Stanley Donen’s 1963 effort Charade, starring veteran Cary Grant and rising star Audrey Hepburn, has been described by many onlookers as the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made. This can be proven through the blend of genres, morally grey characters and a few twists of dark comedy and romance between the main leads.
In fact, it’s fair to say that Hitchcock cemented his legacy not only through his own films but also through the countless works influenced by his creative spirit. His style, both pointed and ineffably complex, has permeated art ever since. Stoker embraces that same combination, paying homage to Hitchcock’s distinctive blend of suspense, psychological depth, and visual storytelling.
Stoker featured a number of familiar faces, including Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Matthew Goode, whose previous film credits arguably amplified the film’s gothic influences. Additionally, Stoker is deeply imbued with Hitchcockian elements from the outset. The main premise bears a striking resemblance to Hitchcock’s 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt, with its exploration of a sinister family dynamic. The antagonist in Stoker also evokes connections to the unsettling presence in Psycho, while the mansion itself carries echoes of the haunting atmosphere found in Rebecca. These parallels underscore the film’s deep roots in Hitchcock’s cinematic legacy.
In some ways, Stoker has a clever blend of gothic influences underscored by Hitchcockian elements. However, it also had something new through the use of vengeance as a motif, an element that bound Chan-Wook’s previous filmography.
Chan-wook himself agreed with this notion that Stoker had Hitchcockian influences, although he does mention during an interview with Filmmaker that this was a case of “choosing to do this film, […] not because of the Hitchcockian elements, but despite the fact that it had Hitchcockian elements in it”. In fact, Wentworth Miller, the Prison Break star who wrote the screenplay, later commented that Chan-wook completely took the movie in his own direction, unlocking new depths as he did so.
So, while Hitchcock defined the thriller genre that Wentworth was appraising, his influence extends far beyond directly informing a director’s work. Park Chan-wook observes that Hitchcock has become almost synonymous with the genre itself. He notes that “even if you’re a filmmaker who’s never seen a Hitchcock film in your entire life, if you’re making a thriller film, people might come up to you and say, ‘I saw some Hitchcock references or Hitchcock elements in your film.'” This underscores the profound and pervasive impact Hitchcock has had on the language of cinema, particularly within the thriller genre.
Chan-wook also points out that upon finishing the final product, he was surprised that many other subconscious Hitchcockian elements could be found, one that included an often forgotten Hitchcock piece Marnie, as seen through Wasikowska’s protagonist and the themes of mental health that are hinted throughout the film. He speculates that it could be “a function of coincidence, and a function of Hitchcock being no longer just a filmmaker, or just a name, but a genre unto itself.”
While time will tell if suspense thrillers continue to be influenced by the portly old Englishman, let us hope that some would follow Chan-Wook’s example of telling unique stories that just happen to have inflections of the late master of suspense, and not the other way around.
