Peeping Tom was the type of film that left me satisfied and hungry all at once. The main character, Mark Lewis, made me uncomfortable, suspicious, and completely relaxed all at once. The varying stages of emotion were created through Mark being a round character. As discussed in class, there was a lot of development and change in the character as the film progressed. The most relevant scene to look into Mark’s drastic change in persona was during the time spent with Helen, the female from downstairs. During the scene where she discusses the possibilities of her book and needing his help is where I found the most impactful setting to show Mark’s true dispositions and how he constantly battles his own struggle from being tested on by his father to see the psychology behind fear on the nervous system.

Mark acts very genuine and interested whenever Helen is present. He listens to her words in a much more attentive manor than when he is at work or talking to other people; his attention gets restricted very easily when he sees a victim he wishes to be infatuated with. During the scene of Helen sharing the idea of her book, his responsiveness is much more dramatized than he usually responds- in a dull, uninterested, almost insincere way. He quickly gets emotionally disturbed when she shares that the book relates to capturing images with a magical movie camera. His curiosity and interest in Helen quickly brings him back to his calm, involved self. However, that key point where he enters the darker side of his personality was a key moment for my understanding of his character. He is not often shown in such a genuine and interested state, so when the time came that he bounced back to being dark and unclear was a much more drastic switch that any other moment in the movie.

Once Mark regains his heightened stated of interest, Helen is the one who has a large switch in character. She suddenly gets concerned that she has asked too much of him, this is another moment in this film that captures their relationship and how she effects him. When Mark replies about the discussion of money and his payment not being important, he quickly dives into another tunnel of his inner-curiosity. I felt that this moment was a clear flashback of the trauma that he had been put through as a child by his father. The psychological testing left his emotions and interests calculated, so whenever something (Helen) took him to a new state, he did not know how to respond and closed up his shell, similar to a turtle, when things became too much for him to handle.
It was the creativity and ability to twist my feelings towards Mark that made this film resonate with me. There are many round characters that are still do not have enough variation to leave me interested. Mark, on the other hand, was a character that continued to drag my feelings from side to side. Once I thought I had him pinned and clearly decided that I did or did not feel sympathy for him, the film would throw a curve ball allowing him to creep back onto my good side. Marks constant battle of self-interest and experience with Helen continues to interest me, any film that can leave you questioning an opinion on a character weeks after I it… job well done.