Peeping Tom

It is rare for a film to be received with such distaste and disapproval by the film press as Peeping Tom was at the time. One reviewer wrote that the film should be flushed down the nearest sewer as soon as possible. This psychological thriller about voyeurism and murderousness, which brings to mind Hitchcock's Rear Window and Psycho, was considered extremely perverse and morally utterly reprehensible. Director Michael Powell never returned to work as a director in Britain afterwards, while lead actor Karlheinz Böhm's career also went into a downward spiral. Meanwhile, the film has achieved masterpiece status.

The seemingly gentle Mark Lewis (Böhm) was abused as a child by his father as a guinea pig to see what fear does to a child. This was not without consequences; Lewis has emerged as a serial killer fascinated by women who lose their lives in panic; he films the fear in their eyes as he kills them. Meanwhile, he has befriended his unsuspecting downstairs neighbour.