Peeping Tom

 “Can you imagine yourself in this picture?”

I was initially shocked when researching this film at how poorly it was received at the time of it’s release but, upon reflection, it’s not shocking that the subject matter proved controversial in 1960. It’s a real shame that Peeping Tom nearly destroyed director Michael Powell’s (The Red Shoes) career because his direction is a large part of the reason this film is so successful.

Peeping Tom was written by Leo Marks (Sebastian), directed by the aforementioned Powell, and was released on April 7th, 1960. Peeping Tom was made on a budget of between £100,000-£125,000 and went on to make $24,640 worldwide. As mentioned above Peeping Tom received overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release due to its subject matter (even after being heavily censored), but is considered by modern critics to be a masterpiece (and considered by many to be the first slasher, preceding Black Christmas and Halloween by fourteen and eighteen years respectively).

Peeping Tom follows Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm, La Paloma), a serial killer who films his murders so he can rewatch them later (implied to be for sexual gratification). Mark strikes up a tentative relationship with his downstairs neighbor, Helen (Anna Massey, Hotel du Lac), and shares with her his traumatic childhood. When Helen discovers his secret he is unable to kill her, and instead takes his own life.

Böhm and Massey are both great in this, but the true star is Powell’s direction. The film is never less that interesting to look at, well-blocked and colorful. The murder scenes in particular are incredibly well-directed, the use of the camera both in-and-out of universe creating an intenesly suspenseful experience.

The film also has an incredibly prescient underlying message about male violence against women and the dangers of toxic masculinity. The exploration of the damage done to Mark by his father is very interesting, but the film doesn’t try to make him too sympathetic a figure in that exploration.

Peeping Tom is an excellent early slasher film that should be checked out by any fan of the genre. It’s a shame that the film didn’t get the recognition that it deserved upon its release, but I’m glad to see that it’s reputation has improved over the years.

Rating: 4 tripod knives out of 5

Other Observations:

• Does the Dog Die? No dogs appear in the film.

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: The entire sequence before Mark kills Vivian (Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes). The suspense in the build up is great, and I love the staging of Shearer’s dance shortly before she’s killed.

• Next Week: We’re celebrating Christmas with the original Black Christmas.