Cinephiles everywhere have been left outraged after news that one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most influential films has been repurposed as a vertical ‘microdrama’ for mobile phones.
According to Deadline, Hitchcock’s 1927 thriller The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog has been turned into a microdrama in the U.S. for the British vertical drama app Tattle TV.
Microdramas are two-minute episodes of a larger series that are filmed vertically, so that they can be watched on mobile devices.
The short episodes are designed to appeal to dwindling attention spans, as more viewers struggle to sit through feature-length films or full-length TV episodes.
To repurpose The Lodger, Tattle split the 90-minute film into dozens of bite-sized reels that can be watched on phones.
Tattle said that the move is ‘one of the first known instances of a classic feature film being fully reframed for vertical, mobile-first consumption.’
One of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s most influential films has been repurposed as a vertical ‘microdrama’ for mobile phones
Hitchcock’s 1927 thriller The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog has been turned into a two-minute microdrama for a streaming app
The streaming app used ‘cutting-edge AI tools’ to turn the classic film, which is not only silent but also black and white, into iPhone-friendly content.
While the move is undoubtedly innovative, film purists have been outraged by what they see as the butchering of a classic.
‘If you can’t sit down and watch a 90 minute movie I feel sorry for you,’ commented one.
Another wrote, ‘This is so incredibly bleak,’ while a third commented, ‘Reframing Hitchcock into a microdrama sounds less like innovation and more like we’ve officially lost our collective attention span.’
Released in 1927, The Lodger was Hitchcock’s first thriller film and established him as a key director in the genre.
The plot follows the hunt for a serial killer, similar to Jack the Ripper, in London and a middle-age couple who suspect that their new lodger may be the culprit.
It was a critical and commercial success upon its release, with British trade journal Bioscope calling it ‘the finest British production ever made’ in an early review.
The Lodger was so revered that Hitchcock himself even considered directing a color remake in 1942, after he’d relocated to the United States.
Released in 1927, The Lodger was Hitchcock’s first thriller and established him as a key director in the genre
It is often regarded as one of the director’s best films and it established many of his signature themes and motifs.
After The Lodger, Hitchcock went on to create some of the industry’s most popular films ever, including Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, Rope, and many more.
Microdramas have become increasingly popular in recent years.
So far, China has been the biggest producer of microdramas, with their microdrama market hitting $7billion in 2024, according to CNBC.
Vertical dramas are incredibly lucrative due to their ‘freemium’ model, which involves making the first few episodes free on social media, before paywalling the rest once viewers have been hooked.
The highly-addictive soaps often have salacious titles, such as Dominated by My Dad’s Boss and Secret Surrogate to the Mafia King, to draw in viewers.
Last year, The Washington Post reported that vertical streaming apps are now beating Netflix, Hulu and Paramount+ in user growth.
‘After a long day at work, you don’t want to think about anything,’ one fan told the publication.
‘We’re watching them to kind of escape everything else in life.’
Read the full article here
