Summary: Filmmaker Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm) has an unnatural obsession with fear that leads him to murder women, while capturing their terror with his camera.

Watching Peeping Tom with a contemporary sensibility, it is difficult to imagine the controversy that surrounded this movie upon its release.  Despised by critics and shunned by audiences, this movie pretty much spelled the end of Powell’s career and it is difficult to understand why.  Psycho was released the same year, and in my opinion, is at least as disturbing, if not more so. Böhm does an excellent job with the turmoil of his character and the POV shots through the camera manage to both convey the distancing of the character from his victims, while drawing the viewer into the film.  Instead of simply watching a movie, you are pulled into the murderer’s place and experiencing it as he experiences it.  In terms of graphic violence, there is almost none – the murders are not shown, nor are the bodies ever seen.  There is no nudity (although there apparently was in the original cut, which has been lost), no blood, and a surprisingly low body count.  In fact, Mark Lewis is a surprisingly sympathetic character.  And this is where the strengths of the film truly lie.  Although it is often characterized as a slasher flick it is really more of a psychological exploration of the murderer.  Mark meets Helen Stephens, the “girl next door”, and although he is shy and awkward at first, he becomes comfortable with her and appears to be falling in love.  Meanwhile, his homicidal compulsions are beginning to dominate the rest of his life and the police are getting ever closer.  Normally, I am not a big fan of love interests in movies, but here it was done excellently, and allows the viewer to really feel the conflict between Mark’s murderous urges and his desire to lead a normal life with Helen.  Powell uses this relationship to generate a certain amount of sympathy for this character and instead of wanting him captured and killed, I found myself simply hoping he would seek some help.  Needless to say, that is not what I was expecting from this movie and I am left with my own internal conflict.  I cannot deny that this is an extremely well made and complex film but considering the notoriety of it, I was a bit let down.  If you want splatter and shocks, you won’t find them here.  What you will get is a captivating look into the mind of a seriously disturbed individual and that should be enough for anyone.  But I could have used a bit of splatter.

A-

originally posted Oct. 3, 2008

www.squirrelsofdoom.com