Review of Peeping Tom (1960) by Jules E — 11 Apr 2011

Peeping Tom is a film better written than directed or acted or executed in any way. While watching the film and witnessing the development of the events, I couldn't help but feel that this is more book material rather than film material. The film had many ingredients to make it a timeless cinematic classic and a masterpiece, but it falls short from becoming one for many reasons. The film is good, but not as good as so many people claim it to be. And it's far from being Hitchcockian. Maybe it deals with issues that Hitchcock dealt with but still Hitchcock's films were different and obviously more superior. Anyway, this is why Peeping Tom isn't a great film.

It's very easy for someone to come up with an interesting concept. And it is present here. A guy who uses his camera to kill women and record their last reaction before their death. And it's easy to throw in some psychological issues to make it look more interesting. Here it's the father son relation where the kid suffers from a sadistic father who eventually castrates him in a certain way while growing up. And to spice things up, we ass some metaphors and symbolism to make it even more intriguing. And here we see a clever use of the camera as a phallic object that our protagonist uses as his own for his personal and quite original way of sexual intercourse. This is all great here but why doesn't it work?

Ok, the screenplay has many interesting elements but all of it together wasn't very well developed. Everything seems very thought of and calculated, and they're connecting events and throwing psychological complexes all around just to make the story the way they want it to be. Which wasn't really brilliant. I mean, I completely imagined a whole different ending. Something more orgasmic or grandiose. But they way it did end was quite cheesy and well a turn off if I might say. Not to add the silly written cliche characters.

Many films suffer from a problem, which is a great script but not a great execution. Peeping Tom enjoys a fair script, not to say a great one, but doesn't enjoy an equally good execution. The director was forcing the tension into some scenes where you feel that you're nervous and the tension is building up but if you think of it, you don't really know why. You're just feeling nervous out of no where. And well, as I said, many emotions are forced and things were extremely over done when it comes to the actors' direction. The reactions were too exaggerated to an annoying level.

To finish things, I have to talk about the acting. And I couldn't think of another word than confusing. The actors gave great moments with good performances. And in other moments they were just plain horrible. I can't totally blame them because after all they're following directions. But they had really annoying moment. I just wanted to slap the neighbor girl for being overly stupid.