Peeping Tom (1960)
88%RT Audience Score:
Awards & Nominations: NA
Peeping Tom is a chilling, methodical look at the psychology of a killer, and a classic work of voyeuristic cinema
Peeping Tom is a classic horror film that will make you think twice about being a peeping tom. The movie is a masterclass in filmmaking that puts a sociopath in a sympathetic light. It’s a bit uncomfortable to watch, but it’s also compelling and not to be missed. The film reminds us of the scary, primitive power of movies by putting us, as viewers, in the position of its peeping protagonist. As the psychopath sets up his victims for the kill, we see them through his eyes. It’s a great reminder that we’re all voyeurs when we watch a movie, but hopefully, we won’t be irreparably altered by our voyeurism.
Production Company(ies)
Renaissance Films, British Broadcasting Corporation, Curzon Film Distributors
Distributor
Astor Pictures Corporation, 20th Century Fox, Image Entertainment Inc.
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Newman Arms – 23 Rathbone Street, Fitzrovia, London, England, UK
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
1960
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.66 : 1 (original & negative ratio / European theatrical ratio)
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Runtime:1h 49m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): May 15, 1962 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 16, 1999
Genre(s)
Horror
Keyword(s)
Peeping Tom, horror, Michael Powell, Karlheinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley, Esmond Knight, Bartlett Mullins, Leo Marks, Astor Pictures Corporation, 20th Century Fox, Image Entertainment Inc., $84.0K, Mono, voyeuristic cinema, psychological thriller, serial killer, British Anarchy, suspense, atmosphere, POV, mature themes, sex, violence, crime thriller, dark, lurid, scoptophilia, psycholagy, killer, tension, dramatic climax, box office, director, producer, writer, reviewed by critics, MPAA rating, classic, masterpiece, influential, genre-defining, ahead of its time, controversial, banned, disturbing, unsettling, chilling, methodical, psychological, sociopath, sympathetic, horror genre, classic work, documentary, fear, victims, racy photographs, women, daughter, family, apartment, documentary on fear, reactions, murders, friends, horror movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Nosferatu, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Night of the Hunter, Seconds, Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho, Black Christmas, Halloween, Martin Scorsese, critics’ darling, British cinema, British horror, British thriller, British film, British movie, British classic, British masterpiece, British cinema, British Anarchy
Worldwide gross: $24,640
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $280,337
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,870
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 30,571
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Moira Shearer – Vivian
Anna Massey – Helen Stephens
Maxine Audley – Mrs. Stephens
Esmond Knight – Arthur Baden
Bartlett Mullins – Mr. Peters
Michael Powell – Director/Producer
Leo Marks – Writer
Director(s)
Michael Powell
Writer(s)
Leo Marks
Producer(s)
Michael Powell
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (55) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (2)
An integral film for the development of the horror genre.
October 5, 2018 | Rating: A
Chris Stuckmann
ChrisStuckmann.com
TOP CRITIC
Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom is the best movie ever made about the voyeuristic allure of making and watching movies.
October 14, 2014
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News
TOP CRITIC
Fear, as it turns out, is the most frightening thing in the world, and Peeping Tom makes us feel it palpably as few films have been able to do.
October 5, 2013
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Almost forty years later, Powell’s audaciousness, satirical wit and dazzling color sense still crackle with life.
October 5, 2013
Ann Hornaday
Baltimore Sun
TOP CRITIC
Peeping Tom reminds us of the scary, primitive power of movies by putting us, as viewers, in the position of its peeping protagonist. As the psychopath sets up his victims for the kill, we see them through his eyes.
October 5, 2013 | Rating: 5/5
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
It still packs a wallop. Maybe that’s because, in cinema, we’re all peeping toms. And the camera, in skillful hands, can be an exquisite instrument of terror.
October 5, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
A masterclass in filmmaking that puts a sociopath in a sympathetic light. Uncomfortable but compelling, Peeping Tom is not to be missed.
March 30, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Trace Thurman
Horror Queers Podcast
This proto-slasher film is making fascinating observations about class, nationality and gender, but it’s so well integrated it never feels heavy handed. Powell’s meta shooting style is inspired and Vivian Shearer makes a big impression in only 2 scenes.
March 25, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Joe Lipsett
Horror Queers Podcast
Mark who is the peeping tom in this situation is probably up there with one of the most complex characters in cinema.
October 26, 2020 | Rating: 7/10
Emma Wolfe
SpookyAstronauts
Directed by Michael Powell with British Anarchy … crazy but exquisitely reserved. Recognized now as one of his greatest films, a primer for the use of the camera as an eye and point of view. We are all voyeurs when we watch a movie
May 16, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Patrick McDonald
WBGR-FM (93.7 FM – Monroe, WI)
Almost all who act as voyeurs in their love of cinema will never hurt another person- not fatally, anyway. That doesn’t mean we aren’t irreparably altered by our voyeurism.
May 1, 2019 | Rating: 5/5
C.H. Newell
Father Son Holy Gore
A timeless and sublime masterpiece that presents an incredibly intelligent and moving picture of psychological struggle.
February 28, 2019
Naila Scargill
Exquisite Terror…
Plot
Mark Lewis, works as a focus puller in a British film studio. On his off hours, he supplies a local porno shop with cheesecake photos and also dabbles in filmmaking. A lonely, unfriendly, sexually repressed fellow, Mark is obsessed with the effects of fear and how they are registered on the face and behavior of the frightened. This obsession dates from the time when, as a child, he served as the subject of some cold-blooded experiments in terror conducted by his own scientist father. As a grown man, Mark becomes a compulsive murderer who kills women and records their contorted features and dying gasps on film. His ongoing project is a documentary on fear. With 16mm camera in hand, he accompanies a prostitute to her room and stabs her with a blade concealed in his tripod, all the while photographing her contorted face in the throes of terror and death. Alone in his room, he surrounds himself with the sights and sounds of terror: taped screams, black-and-white “home movies” of convulsed faces. At his house, he meets Helen Stephens, a young woman who lives with her blind mother in a downstairs flat. She visits his flat, where he shows her black-and-white films that were taken of him when he was a child. She is horrified to see that his father used him as a guinea pig in various experiments, taking movies of his reactions of fear.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film Peeping Tom on Fresh Kernels.
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