Can you successfully parody a director who is already in on the joke?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Mel Brooks faced a unique challenge when crafting his 1977 film High Anxiety. By spoofing the suspenseful masterpieces of Alfred Hitchcock, he risked mimicking a filmmaker whose own work was already laced with dark humor and self-awareness. The result was a reverential homage that divided critics but delighted its subject.

Released in 1977, High Anxiety marked Mel Brooks' debut as both a producer and a lead actor. The film serves as a satirical mystery, centering on Dr. Richard Thorndyke, who arrives at the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous to replace a mysteriously deceased predecessor. Thorndyke suffers from the titular phobia, a condition exacerbated by the institute's precarious location on a cliffside. The plot unfolds as a series of homages to Hitchcock classics, including Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, and Spellbound, while also incorporating nods to other cinematic works like Citizen Kane and the James Bond franchise.

The production was defined by a meticulous effort to replicate the visual language of Hitchcock’s films. Brooks worked closely with his director of photography to ensure the lighting, texture, and pacing mirrored the suspense master’s style. Despite this technical precision, the film faced skepticism from critics like Roger Ebert, Vincent Canby, and Pauline Kael. They argued that because Hitchcock’s own films were already inherently satirical and self-aware, they were difficult targets for traditional parody. Some reviewers felt the film relied too heavily on juvenile humor, while others, such as Charles Champlin, praised it as a coherent and reverential piece of work.

Beyond the cinematic references, the film targeted the popular psychoanalytic trends of the era. One notable sequence features Brooks’ character struggling to deliver a professional speech at a psychiatric convention after children enter the audience, forcing him to sanitize clinical terminology into absurd alternatives like 'pee-pee envy' and 'the woo-woo.' The film’s ultimate validation came from Hitchcock himself. After a private screening where the director remained silent, he later sent Brooks a gift of wine alongside a note expressing his enjoyment and telling him to stop worrying about the project.

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