The 1960 Michael Powell film, Peeping Tom, demonstrates the compelling angle of how a psychological thriller transcends into a cinematic milestone. Personally, I am a zealous fan of suspenseful cinematic films within the horror and thriller genres, having been inspired by numerous Stephen King stories and Alfred Hitchcock’s works as well. However, Powell illustrated a more passive exploration behind the sinister nature of the protagonist or anti-hero, a more potentially necessary classification of the notorious Mark Lewis. Also, this film pacifies the audience by centralizing all action around the main character, regardless of his many episodes resulting in homicidal compulsions. I feel this technique was applied to the film with the intention of exploring how a clinically disturbed serial killer conceives such a violent modus operandi against women. Having said that, this film introduced a new concept worthy of rehashing for horror film profitability; this involved horrific violence implemented on attractive, young, helpless females as a cliché Hollywood tactic. Although this popular new trend amongst audiences may hold some undertones regarding misogynistic violence, these changes provoked both the appetites and expectations of cinematic audiences across the world.

The film explores the life of a deeply troubled man named Mark Lewis, a photographer and film-obsessed individual who constantly documents everything with a camera. Although the film portrays Mark as a peculiar and unassertive individual, Mark articulates many cryptic implications that he is psychologically damaged because of his father’s academic ambitions. Specifically, Mark mentions how his father was a biology professor who centralized his research goals behind putting a youthful human being under the constant surveillance from an active camera. Once this was mentioned, the essential confession of his background allowed the audience to process the concept that he will most likely grow up to be a paranoid, mentally ill member of society. Due to the abuse of his privacy in his early youthful development, it becomes clear that he is basically implying that the unknown experiences his turbulent childhood are the somber mystery behind his murderous desires. Ironically, even though his father’s desire for both academic prestige and new discoveries in the field of psychology, Mark’s disturbed existence was the ultimate consequence of such elite accomplishments. Therefore, the audience is forced into a state of virtual sympathy, without forgetting the fact that mark is a deviant murderer in need of both professional help and incarceration. Even though his father is nonexistent in this film, he serves as a contemptible scapegoat since his academically-praised research transformed his child into a monstrous individual.

Although Peeping Tom is an innovative demonstration of how a psychological thriller should be orchestrated, I felt this movie was not nearly as scary or frightening as other suspense films by the intention of Powell, respectively speaking. In this film, the directorial incentive appears to help explain why Mark’s dark lifestyle is rational to both himself and the audience, because we both have omniscient information regarding the killer’s intentions and past life. In comparison to the 1991 Jonathan Demme film, The Silence of the Lambs, the serial killer, colloquially nicknamed Buffalo Bill, is presented in a more frightening manner considering his modus operandi involves the torturous flaying of female skin in order to design clothing items resembling the female anatomy. As the FBI is on the search for this killer, they must collect and value all information regarding psychological abuse of serial killers targeting young women. In order to do a forensic analysis on such grotesque proclivities for serial killers, the FBI utilizes a young trainee to interrogate an imprisoned cannibal with possible information regarding the wanted suspect at large. In Peeping Tom, there is much less urgency because the plot focuses on both the gentle and harmful juxtaposing personality traits of the killer, Mark. As for The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster is on the screen for 80-90% of the film, and Buffalo Bill is only given a few snippets of his gloomy lair in his basement. Nevertheless, these two films show many dynamic behaviors behind the minds of cinematic serial killers, and how one is intended to be scarier and the other intended to be more educational per se.