5. Joel Schumacher - Phone Booth
Phone Booth is always fun to discuss because it basically an amalgam of four Hitchcock films/staples. First, the premise follows Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) as a publicist accused of a murder he didn't commit, the wrong man. Second, the actual killer (Kiefer Sutherland) tells Stu all that he must do or else more people will die, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Third, the claustrophobic setting, 90% of the film takes place in a phone booth, is reminiscent of Hitch's more experimental fare: Rope, Lifeboat, Rear Window. And Rear Window brings us to number four, the motif of voyeurism. Directed by Joel Schumacher, whose entire catalogue is middling at best, the film suffers from a major identity crisis. That it combines so many Hitchcockian elements is admirable, but only one person ever did it successfully: Hitchcock. Hitchcock was also good at ending films resolutely, in a way audiences could appreciate even if they didn't like it. Schumacher's film ends like every horror movie ends, with the killer run free and ambiguously hinting at a sequel (which thankfully never happened).