The way we interpret what we see, hear, and experience relies heavily on a person’s point of view. One person’s interpretation of something is likely to be completely different than that of another. In the case of cinema, a person’s point of view plays a large role in their interpretation of what they are viewing. For example, in horror movies something that is scary to me, very well may be comical to someone else. Peeping Tom’s storyline follows one man, named Mark, through his murder of three different women. From simply hearing the summary of the film, it’d be easy to assume any viewer would empathize solely with the three female victims. Although after watching the film I feel I also have a slight tinge of empathy for Mark as well. Which is what makes point of view such an important aspect in the interpretation of film. A male viewer may find himself angry at Mark for treating women so poorly, while another may feel excitement in Mark’s kills. A female viewer potentially may feel scared by the situation and strongly dislike Mark for putting those women in such a situation. The plethora of feelings and interpretations from the film are endless, and ultimately depend on the person watching.

I feel Michael Powell strategically develops his narrative in a way that is supposed to leave us feeling a bit sorry for Mark. Throughout the entire film we watch Mark kill these women without a set motive. The mystery of the movie comes not from who is doing the killing but instead from why the killing is being done. The three women seem to share no real connection; beside that in all three murder’s Mark films their deaths. It isn’t until the end of the film though that we discover Mark’s motives for both filming and murdering these women. In each of his kills, the last thing the viewer is left with is an image of the fear in the victims face. Which largely depicts why Mark kills these women, he wants them to watch the fear on their face while being killed. This inhumane act Mark preforms is driven from his childhood. We discover at the end of the film that Mark’s father had conducted a series of tests on him as a child all dealing with fear. He would film Mark while conducting acts that were intended to scare him. These actions are in turn what stirred Mark to act in the way that he did. He had been conditioned from a young age that evoking fear in others was a normal.

It isn’t until the end of the film though that we are presented with this information, and upon realizing his motives I suddenly felt my feelings of distaste and hatred toward Mark turn to those of empathy. His previous actions were in no way validated in my mind but my point of view on the situation had greatly shifted. Case and point of how much of an impact point of view has on the way we interpret a situation. I’m sure for many other viewers the discovery of Mark’s past did little but solve their confusion of his motives. However, Powell does an excellent job framing the narrative in a way that keeps the viewer interested up until the very end. He also leaves the interpretation of Mark and his actions up to the individual watching; and although he attempts to create a sense of empathy towards Mark in the end, the rest of the film is set in such a manner that feeling no empathy for him at all would also be a completely normal response. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with Powell’s development of the narrative and in his development of Mark’s character.