Peeping Tom (1960)

When Peeping Tom was released in 1960, it caused so much controversy that it was pulled from British theaters after only five days and director Michael Powell's career was effectively over. The general public hated it and was banned for years. Critics called it "more nauseating and depressing than leper colonies," "disgusting," "obscene," "perverted," and a whole lot more unsavory terms. You get the picture.

All those critics simply weren't ready for Peeping Tom...but their kids loved it. Once the 70s rolled around, everyone began praising the film, even calling it "Britain's Psycho." Michael Powell was also still alive to see the film get exonerated in the eyes of the public, not that it brought his career back or anything. I finally got around to watching Peeping Tom and it was nothing short of brilliant.

The film tells the story of Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Bohm), a passionate, but deeply troubled and reclusive, photographer who always films anything and everything he encounters. His reasons for constantly filming are due to his late father, a renowned psychologist, filming him non-stop throughout his childhood, using him as a test subject for his studies on fear in children. He continues to live in his childhood home, renting out rooms in it while acting as a tenant instead of the owner. He works at a film studio while moonlighting as a softcore porn photographer. He harbors a dark secret, however. He kills women with his pointed tripod while filming their horrified reactions to their murder. He does this in order to get the look of complete terror in their eyes.

There's a good reason people were outraged at this film. It was so far ahead of its time. This film was the first in which the killer's POV is shown. It also has profanity, like "bitch," and nude images of women, rare for 1960. The reasons people were outraged back then are laughable today, but it really just goes to show how different films were then. It's interesting to see certain editing techniques and cliches in this that were uncommon at the time.

Things take an unusual turn for Mark when his downstairs neighbor, Helen Stephens (Anna Massey), becomes interested in him. She lives with her blind mother (Maxine Audley), who is very suspicious of Mark. On top of that, police begin to suspect Mark after a run in with a psychologist.

The acting of Bohm as Mark is outstanding. He really nails the look of a troubled, repressed man. He looks perpetually scared and uneasy, especially when he isn't filming. He also nails the social awkwardness of the character, talking very slowly, as if he's processing film. His backstory is also sad, never getting any privacy as a child because of his father. n This, in turn, makes his character very sympathetic.

All in all, Peeping Tom is brilliant. A great film so far ahead of its time. If you like horror movies, watch Peeping Tom. This is the prototype to the modern horror film. Every film, not just horror, today ought to take notes on it because THIS is how you make a masterpiece. I rank this film GREAT on the scale.