Peeping Tom - Wednesday 30th April 2025

I watched this 1960 film for the first time, primarily for research purposes, and I have to say, it was good!

I’ve said it before, but it’s depressing how the films and filmmakers from decades ago took far more risks than their modern day equivalent. Because of that, this film still, 65 years after it was released, seems innovative!

Whilst it’s not ‘thrilling’ or ‘scary’ in any way, it does provide a compelling character study of someone on the fringes of society, and in the ‘incel’ scapegoating world we live in today, it’s definitely still very pertinent.

It’s because we’re intrigued by the film’s protagonist, that it doesn’t matter that we know who the killer is within the first five minutes of the film; what keeps us watching is trying to find out why he behaves the way he does. In that sense, the filmmaker makes a ‘Peeping Tom’ (Voyeur) out of the audience, in the same way the protagonist of the film is one.

Of course, such brilliant filmmaking comes at the hands of a master, and its sad that the film caused such notoriety when released, that the filmmaker in question, Michael Powell, found it difficult it to work again.

I guess that’s partly why filmmakers nowadays are so risk-averse; they want to keep working! The irony is, when your movies are so bland, nobody in the audience wants you to!

Also, I think this is probably the first of Michael Powell’s films that I’ve seen! Shock! Horror!

Anyway, with a great premise, a great ending, and a brilliant examination of character (as well as a few in-jokes about filmmaking), this film should be on every filmmaker’s list of films to watch! As a Londoner, I also enjoyed catching glimpses of Rathbone Place and Newman’s Passage from back in the day! (Roads I still walk down frequently!)