Time: 101 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Karlheinz Boehm as Mark Lewis
Anna Massey as Helen Stephens
Moira Shearer as Vivian
Maxine Audley as Mrs. Stephens
Director: Michael Powell

Mark, a psychologically ill film-maker, murders women and records their dying moments. His neighbour, Helen, becomes curious about his documentaries and watches one of them secretly.

Peeping Tom is a horror movie I had been meaning to get around to for some time. I did know that it came out the same year as Psycho, with both being incredibly influential and were the starter points of the slasher genre, and also released to much controversy. However, the latter was a hit and the former effectively killed the director’s career. Peeping Tom was ahead of its time in many ways, and it’s great.

The script is pretty clever, well crafted and suspenseful, with an interesting and thought provoking story. It has a slasher premise, with it being about a cameraman who uses a movie camera to kill women and films them as they die. What made it shocking even alongside Psycho is that the protagonist of Peeping Tom is actually the killer and the movie takes place from his perspective. It isn’t a whodunnit where you are trying to figure out who the killer is, it puts you in the lead character’s voyeuristic psyche and you are forced to try to understand him. It serves as a character study of a traumatised and disturbed man and has something even resembling empathy for him. I was invested and intrigued with where the movie went. Even among the serial killer story, there is a much deeper commentary if you look deeper, especially when it comes to the satire of the work in the film industry. It is steadily paced and some scenes are dragged out, but it intrigued me throughout its 100 minute runtime nonetheless.

There are some great performances from actors including Anna Massey, Moira Shearer and Maxine Audley. However, it mostly comes down to Karlheinz Böhm as the serial killer protagonist Mark Lewis. He is written very well, a mysterious and mild mannered yet troubled character, and the movie portrays him in an interesting angle and gives him a layer of tragedy. Böhm is fantastic in his role here, shady, yet captivating and fascinating. He creates great tension in his scenes, but at the same time brings a level of innocence in his scenes with Anna Massey’s Helen. Their relationship was one of the most interesting parts of the film, and it was fascinating following him.

Michael Powell directed this superbly. It is visually stunning with its technicolour cinematography, and the piano driven score is effective too. It also does a good job at making you feel like a voyeur, especially with how anytime Mark kills someone, it takes place from his perspective; from what I’ve heard, Peeping Tom was the first movie to do this.

Peeping Tom was highly influential, ahead of its time, suspenseful, fantastically directed, and with excellent performances, especially from Karlheinz Böhm. It has held up very well and is definitely an essential horror movie to watch.