Peeping Tom is a 1960’s horror film that was directed by Michael Powell. Initially, this film received harsh critiques; it was the first of it’s kind to be presented in the Hollywood film industry. In recent years the critiques have changed and many people think it is unusual but brilliant. Despite the change in reviews towards the film, I think that Peeping Tom is sadistic and disturbing due to the perspective it is filmed from.
Unlike the classic horror film that allows us to view events from the victim’s perspective, Peeping Tom does the opposite by illustrating events via the perspective of the killer — or in some cases, through the lens of his camera. The main character, Mark, films women with a mirror attached to the camera. He does this so that when he approaches them to kill, they can see their own horror in the mirror, allowing Mark to capture their terrified faces on film. He is doing this, in part, for the movie he is trying to create.
Filming the movie through this perspective is disturbing because we cannot sympathize with the victim(s). Instead, we find ourselves trapped into the mindset of the killer — it’s almost like we are doing the killing simply by watching the movie. As the viewers, we cannot see what they (the victims) are seeing. We only see them scared and screaming while Mark approaches them. We don’t know what Mark is doing with the mirror until very late into the film. Filming the movie like this forces the viewer to take on the role of the killer — not something that your everyday film enthusiast would enjoy.
The first scene of the movie shows Mark filming a prostitute as he follows her back to a room. We are watching this through the lens of his camera for the majority of the time. It is clear to see that Mark is somewhat of an usual character in terms of normative behavior from the beginning, but we aren’t sure why yet. All that we see is the camera (Mark) slowly moving towards the prostitute that is lying on the bed. She starts to scream and looks mortified, but we still don’t know what she is seeing. It looks like she is looking at us — the audience. As we catch on to the fact that Mark is a killer, each of his kills grows more and more gruesome to watch.
By forcing the audience to see the film through the perspective of the killer, the film appears to be very sadistic in it’s nature. Obviously Mark enjoys what he is doing and given that we don’t, it’s like we are being tormented to watch. The original critiques of this film shared the same opinion. Horror films had traditionally presented the narrative from the perspective of the victim, and Peeping Tom got a lot of attention for doing the opposite.
Although some people may interpret this film as intriguing, being one of few of it’s kind, I still feel that it is disturbing and sadistic. If I’m going to watch a scary movie, I don’t want to feel like I am doing to killing and torturing. I want to side with the victim. Peeping Tom does not allow the audience to sympathize with the victim(s), therefore it is sadistic and sort of barbaric.
This film does present a sadistic feel to it, especially with a character such as Mark, who enjoys the fear in others so he purposefully elicits fear for his enjoyment. Seeing the film from the anti-hero or the killer’s point of view is a perspective that allows the audience to view the world through their eyes and why they do the things you do. It gets the audience to struggle with their morality because they begin to understand and sympathize with the killer when they know they should not. For that reason, I actually really enjoy Peeping Tom despite its sadistic nature. It made it challenging to watch while he murders the innocent women and admires the fear he instills while understanding and sort of accepting why he does what he does.
I agree with you that this film is unique in the fact that it is filmed through the perspective of the killer or antagonist of the film. I never realized until you noted that “we find ourselves trapped into the mindset of the killer — it’s almost like we are doing the killing simply by watching the movie.” This is a very disturbing realization that I completely agree with. It is almost not right for the director to put the viewer in such a position. Also, in most scary movies I feel as though we know more about the victims than we do the killers, but in Peeping Tom it’s as though we know more about the killer than we do the victims.
I agree with you that it does seem sadistic to watch a film like this. However I find these types of films very interesting as well because they give an insight into the minds of psychopaths. It is uncomfortable for normal functioning people, yes, but it also gives us the chance to gain a better understanding of mental illness which I think is great. Mentally ill characters are often villainized which creates a stigma against those suffering from such illnesses. But when we are put in the head of someone like Mark, even though we are still aware the he is definitely the villain, we are able to sympathize with him and learn a bit about how his mind works. This creates understanding instead of stigma. I agree it feels sadistic to watch a film like Peeping Tom, but it is also very interesting and in a weird way, educational.
This in an interesting view on the movie. This is not the way that I felt about the movie when I was watching it. I looked at it in more of a psychological way, where we could emphasize with the killer. But it is very interesting to think that we are the ones doing the killing based on our point of view of the movie. The camera perspective is so important in this movie and the director’s choice of making the killings happen in this perspective did make it seem like the audience was taking part in the killing because of the limited point of view that we had. I personally think this movie was very interesting and a way to psychoanalyze serial killers rather than a sadistic movie, but I can completely see where you are coming from and how you felt this way about the movie.
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