Frenzy was one of Alfred Hitchcock's later films, and as such it is generally overlooked in his canon. But, in many ways it's a more realistic depiction of a killer than Psycho. That said, Psycho is the superior film.
In my review of the film I wrote:
While many of Hitchcock’s earlier films on murderers are outdated, due to psychological and forensic advancements- even Psycho seems somewhat quaint, Frenzy is fully modern. Rusk keeps trophies of his victims, and even revels in the framing of his friend, to prove his ‘superiority’, especially to Blaney. There are also very subtle clues to Rusk’s deviance early on- such as a glimpse of his wacky mother (ala Psycho and Strangers On A Train), and the plot does unfold believably, not at a Hollywood modern computer game pace, which only points out the flaws toward the end. Hitchcock also revels in real locations like never before. 1970s London looks and feels the way Charles Dickens may have viewed it had he lived a century later. The city is, perhaps, the central character of the film, and lends a realism to Frenzy that many earlier Hitchcock films lack. The only backscreens used are in a few shots from moving vehicles.
Yes, there are a few other flaws, such as Brenda’s odd impassivity as she is being raped and killed, and a few logical problems, mostly plot holes that are ‘resolved’ by the lowest common denominator law of ‘the dumbest possible action’; but compared to standard Hollywood fare, Frenzy is a near-masterpiece, not only as a genre film, but it is the rare Hitchcock film that probes its characters’ psychological depths with a modern realism. That such a formulaic (in the best sense) director was still evolving and adding things like forensic psychology and new camera tricks to his repertoire so late in his career only makes one wonder just how far his oeuvre would have come were he still alive and making films today. Now there’s a really scary thought!
It is true, that i think Hitchcock, in a sense, would have been a better filmmaker if born in a more modern era. Too much of his work is tied down by its reliance on plodding plots and absurd characterizations, due to Freudianism. Frenzy, while not a great film, is definitely a pointer in the direction that a Hitchcock, born in the 1930s, may have headed.
