An acclaimed and abhorred film about a man raised by a scientist who devoted his life to the study of the psychology of fear, using his own son as his guinea pig. As an adult the boy is obsessed with filming the deaths of beautiful young women, after causing them personally with his knife-wielding tripod. Powell aficionado Martin Scorsese brought the film out of obscurity in 1979.
Michael Powell directed this groundbreaking study in voyeurism, cinema, and obsession.
When Mark was a child, his father, a highly esteemed professor, used him as a form of laboratory rat in a series of experiments that tested various levels of fear. As an adult, Mark too maintains a fascination with terror, having matured into a psychopathic killer with a penchant for filming women on the verge of death. Since he works as a cameraman for a film studio, he easily indulges his fetish by luring aspiring actresses into isolated areas for "screen tests."
But then Mark meets Helen, a neighbor who wishes to become his friend... and the tormented murderer's downfall begins.
The Home Vision Cinema VHS version is digitally re-mastered. The print used is from the Janus collection.
Voyager's laserdisc #CC1299L is part of the company's Criterion Collection. It was digitally transferred from a 35mm Low Contrast Print and features an audio commentary by film theorist Laura Mulvey on the alternate soundtrack.
Shot in Eastman color.
A Michael Powell production.
Director Michael Powell appeared in the role of Mark's father.
Copyright 1960 Michael Powell Theatre LTD.
The film was re-released in the United States in 1994.
Rated BBFC 18 by the British Board of Film Classification.
Review 1:
"...Disturbing brilliance....One of the definitive dozen cult movies ever..." -- 4 out of 4 stars
Source: USA Today
p.7D 04/15/1992
Review 2:
"...Powell was a director who loved rich colors, and PEEPING TOM is shot in a saturated Technicolor....He was a virtuoso of camera use....His film is a masterpiece precisely because it doesn't let us off the hook..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.5 05/02/1999
Review 3:
"...The twisted themes are modern and dark, right down to the killer ending..."
Source: Total Film
p.108 05/01/2000
Review 4:
4 stars out of 5 -- "[D]irector Michael Powell's mastery of atmosphere and the emphasis on the killer's point-of-view still chill."
Source: Ultimate DVD
p.124 05/01/2007
Review 5:
"...Extremely twisted..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.28 01/11/2002
Review 6:
"...PEEPING TOM still ranks as one of the most terribly strange and twisted of motion pictures. Even in a day and age when the outré is encouraged, this brilliant dark gem stands out in a crowd..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F10 03/26/1999
Review 7:
"[T]he audacity of Michael Powell's last major film still takes the breath away."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.95 05/01/2007
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