Review of Peeping Tom (1960) by Edith N — 11 Feb 2007

Gwen requested I watch this one. She saw this in a horror class in grad school, and she wanted someone to talk it over with. As you all know by now, once I've seen a movie, I generally have a [i]lot[/i] to say about it.

I wonder how much this movie is intended to make us think of B. F. Skinner, believed by many to have performed horrible psychological experiments on his daughter. (He didn't.) This villain is the child of a psychologist who performed undescribed but unspeakable experiments on his son, warping him irreparably.

I didn't find this particularly shocking, but you'll note I don't find much shocking except lack of talent--and that's a much more depressed kind of shock than you expect from watching a horror movie. I can believe that people [i]would[/i] find it shocking, let us say that.

Visually, this is a striking film, however. Well I can imagine the horror the women in this film must have felt. This was a man they trusted. This was a man they thought was essentially harmless. Sure, he has an inexplicable German accent. However, he seems innocent, though clearly Helen must have seen his scars.

Helen is herself a total innocent. She doesn't think it's creepy that the upstairs neighbor spies in their front window. She doesn't see anything at all sordid in his various nervous tics. And she thinks her mother's being silly and over-protective.

Mark is being slowly torn to pieces by his love for Helen. He won't film her, because he only kills women he films and only films women he kills. He loves her, and yet he still kills the model. (Who never actually takes off that dress she isn't wearing when she dies.) He can't help who he is.

I have been thinking a lot of late about what one can and cannot prevent oneself from doing. Some people have more control than others; that much is certainly true. In the depths of a mental illness as severe as Mark's, I'm impressed that he controls himself well enough for Helen to survive the first reel.