20 Things You Didn't Know About Shutter Island

8. Scorsese Was Influenced By All These Classic Movies

Hitchcock Vertigo
Paramount Pictures

Even the most casual Scorsese fan knows that he's a huge student of film, and routinely wears his cinematic influences on his sleeve.

This might be no truer than in Shutter Island, which is quite obviously composed as a classy homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, with Scorsese even screening Hitch's Vertigo for the cast and crew before shooting started.

Scorsese also screened the 1947 film noir Out of the Past, and stated in interviews that Teddy and Chuck's presentation in the film was inspired by Dana Andrews' performance in the 1944 noir Laura. He was also influenced by Val Lewton's low-budget 1940s horror films, namely Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie.

The reality-bending central narrative has also been compared extensively to the 1920 German expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and given Scorsese's cinematic literacy, that's almost certainly no coincidence.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.