I spent nearly half of my college career studying a theory of communication that deals with looking through and looking at communication. It’s all about recognizing the fact that there’s a lens in front of you as you watch a movie, watch TV, look into a camera or even look out into the world with your own eyes and mind. The smarter of us understand that we are seeing someone’s perspective, and yet still we look, fascinated by the emotions before us.
Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” is a film about looking, being terrified at what we see, being unable to look away, and feeling tortured and gross for doing so.
It’s a psychological horror movie released just months before “Psycho” about a serial killer, Mark (Carl Boehm), who videotapes women as he’s killing them, all to capture their last moment of fear and rewatch it later. He’s horrified by his actions and his films, but Mark has the psychological disorder of voyeurism, making him consumed to invade a person’s genuine expressions of humanity, be they love or terror.
Mark’s films are all black and white and silent (which would likely be the only option for home video equipment in 1960), but Powell orchestrates them to eerie, silent movie ragtime, and “Peeping Tom’s” vibrant colors and careful framing create a disturbing, unreal effect. On aesthetics alone, we’re drawn into Powell’s cinematic flair, and we hate ourselves for it because of the nature of the story. His techniques seem to telegraph that through any form of movie magic, Powell can pull our strings and keep us transfixed and terrified no matter what he portrays. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Peeping Tom”