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Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael Powell lays bare the cinema's dark voyeuristic underside in this disturbing 1960 psychodrama thriller. Handsome young Carl Boehm is Mark Lewis, a shy, socially clumsy young man shaped by the psychic scars of an emotionally abusive parent, in this case a psychologist father (the director in a perverse cameo) who subjected his son to nightmarish experiments in fear and recorded every interaction with a movie camera. Now Mark continues his father's work, sadistically killing young women with a phallic-like blade attached to his movie camera and filming their final, terrified moments for his definitive documentary on fear. Set in contemporary London, which Powell evokes in a lush, colourful seediness, this film presents Mark as much victim as villain and implicates the audience in his scopophilic activities as we become the spectators to his snuff film screenings. Comparisons to Hitchcock's Psycho, released the same year, are inevitable. Powell's film was reviled upon release, and it practically destroyed his career, ironic in light of the acclaim and success that greeted Psycho, but Powell's picture hit a little too close to home with its urban setting, full colour photography, documentary techniques and especially its uneasy connections between sex, violence and the cinema. We can thank Martin Scorsese for sponsoring its 1979 re-release, which presented the complete, uncut version to appreciative audiences for the first time. This powerfully perverse film was years ahead of its time and remains one of the most disturbing and psychologically complex horror films ever made. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Behind the scenes, Booklet, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Documentary, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Special Edition, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Filmmaker and photographer Mark Lewis (Karl Heinz Böhm) spends days searching for just the right female models for his films which are studies of fear. He was raised by a psychologist father who used Mark as a subject for his own studies of fear and the exposure has left him marked psychologically so that he now is compelled to continue his search for women he murders for the camera as he films their reactions. Mark lives in the upper floors of his family house where he also has his photo lab and rents the downstairs to Helen Stephens (Anna Massey) and her blind mother Mrs. Stephens (Maxine Audley) whom he avoids until one day on Helen's birthday when the young nubile girl introduces herself to the photographer and they feel a connection. Mark trusts Helen enough to show her the films that his psychologist father took of him as a boy and the images disturb the girl but draws her closer to Mark. Mark's jobs as studio camera man for a film studio and cheesecake photographer for a local photo shop allows him easy access to women whom he murders while photographing to show their reactions to fear. When Helen accidentally sees some of his killing films she is appalled but wants to help Mark but the release of his secret is too much to bear as the police close in. ...Peeping Tom ( Face of Fear ) ( Röntgenci )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
At last a decent DVD release for this disturbing classic from nearly fifty years ago. Vilified and treated like a video nasty on its initial release this trip inside the mind of a pyschopath is still so fresh and refreshing. Recommended for all students of serious horror, the tale of a disturbed young mind with a blade on his camera tripod filming his victims expressions as he kills them is utterly gripping. Acting all round is top notch in a production way ahead of it's time. Recommended.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Also released in 1960, Peeping Tom disgusted the censors and outraged the British Press to such a degree that Director Michael Powell found he had to move to Australia if he wished to continue his filmmaking career! The theme of scopophilia (pleasure from watching) is at the centre of this daringly ground-breaking movie as an affected cameraman (Mark) films the fear of the girls he murders to watch again and again! As he becomes emotionally entangled with his live-in tennant, his love for her becomes confused with his sociopathic desire to film her when she becomes frightened. A dark and interesting film, Peeping Tom addresses the very nature of cinema and the viewers' apparent complicity in the subject matter.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This DVD is a vast, VAST improvement on the VHS edition of this wonderful film.
Presented in anamorphic widescreen, Peeping Tom shows the seedy-looking cinematography in all of its glory, and the soundtrack is pin-sharp, making the most of Brian Easdale's haunting piano music.
Buy this for the film, not for the extras.
Presented in anamorphic widescreen, Peeping Tom shows the seedy-looking cinematography in all of its glory, and the soundtrack is pin-sharp, making the most of Brian Easdale's haunting piano music.
Buy this for the film, not for the extras.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
has retained its disturbing power
Peeping Tom (1960)
This is one of those films that is well preceded by its backstory. Director Michael Powell, one half of one of Britain's most famous filmmakers,... Read more
This is one of those films that is well preceded by its backstory. Director Michael Powell, one half of one of Britain's most famous filmmakers,... Read more
Published 28 days ago by Biffer Spice
Stunning film
It may be uncomfortable viewing at times but this is a film that has belatedly become a classic. The performances of Carl Boehm and Anna Maasey are brilliant. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Agnetha
Amazing film, good extras on this disc
Controversial on release and instrumental in severely damaging the director's career, this is now seen as a classic, and with good reason! Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. Wood
Watchable but not that special
This film is curious, and the reaction to it is equally intriguing. I wonder does it depict a film maker renouncing his art? Read more
Published 13 months ago by William Cohen
The Greatest British Film? Silly to think of it as horror (only)
It is bursting with ideas, being visually powerful but with feet firmly rooted to the ground. The British critics, hamstrung in their treatment of Powell due to their hang-up: the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Simon Turner
Bit boring these days
Many years ago I saw the last reel of this picture several times as it was being runby a projectionist at Pinewood. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Michael J. Rossiter
Have they restored the nude scene?
I love this film. Definitely one of my top five. Have they restored Pamela Green's brief nude scene, which was shown at the premier and subsequently cut? Read more
Published on 15 May 2010 by Foxey
It won't disturb your dreams
I often wondered why Hitchcock had so royally ruined the ending of Psycho with the lamest of scenes, where a forensic psychiatrist "explains" the psychology of the killer in the... Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2009 by PatB
Fear - Shock - Terror!
This is a strange movie about a man who was filmed constantly as a child and as he grew up by his father. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2008 by FAMOUS NAME
Fear - Shock - Terror!
This is a strange movie about a man who was filmed constantly as a child and as he grew up by his father. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2008 by FAMOUS NAME
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