As a fan of horror, slasher films during the mid 20th-century always fascinated me. They communicate their actions the same way any modern fictional serial killer would. The suspense, the creative murder tactics, the general creep energy radiating off of whoever is the terror placed front and center. And yet, I am utterly fascinated by Peeping Tom due to its presentation in comparison to how a modern film would’ve executed the same idea. It sets a grim tone through strong use of chiaroscuro lighting (something dearly missed in the 21st century) and it is unafraid to set itself apart with the use of gel lights to add a defining surrealism that communicates to the audience that a tense and horrifying scene will play in front of you. A modern studio would not communicate horror in this aesthetic, writing it off as campy or unfitting, and yet, modern washed out grays and fixations on dull browns often choke out whatever creative light was originally there. Peeping Tom fosters that spark by taking a strong premise and adding its own flare.

Throughout the film we see how men interact with women, mainly in romantic/sexual relationships. Both are depicted in a hidden and chaste fashion, especially when it comes to the erotic. In my opinion, our slasher is then representative of what happens when repression goes so far and it claims these hideous compulsions form. Ones where we seek these thrills wherever we can, even in the most dark places. When a culture is this repressed and unwelcoming to a form of connection that’s supposed to be natural to the human experience, we then seek what has been chased underground. The deeper we go, the more it mutates into something alien to us.

When originally released, many critics saw this film as a controversial dredge unworthy of its time. Its reputation in the 1960s is riddled with hyperbolic negative reviews, censorship, and forever marred the career of Micheal Powell as a director. Looking at this film 66 years later, it feels like it had acted as a reflection inward to what a conservative culture encourages and they didn’t like what they saw.

-written by Aliana Preciado Higgins

I watched the Criterion Collection commentary for this rewatch. Starts out as a newscast. Lang took time to make his first sound film and resisted for over a year and refused to add a Soundtrack to his previous film. Makes sound an equal partner in his arsenal after he had time to study it.

This movie feels to precede police procedural films and the film noir genre. Many uses of shadow to show people from Expressionism brought to film noir, Lang and this film are definitely an influence on that.

The plot is set during the Great Depression, it's very fairytale like, hard times. The people in the town are almost never shown as full families with mother, father, and kids. The antagonist, killer recalls Peter Kürten mass murder of children of recent history in Germany and Fritz Haarmann is another murderer who influenced Peter Lorre’s appearance.

It’s hard to keep your eyes off Lore. His small actions to start scenes, like rubbing his hands together and his darting eyes that always seem nervous, worried, yet very aware. Apparently Peter Lorre has a German Southern accent indicating he's from Austria. Peter Lorre is foreign from Hungary, but typecast as foreign murderer.

There are lots of cues of sound from clocks, indications of newsreels & non-diegetic sound. In the films' context, it's interesting that sound seems to connote danger.

Sound and no video to lead into a scene so early on in sound history. It's really something we sort of take for granted now, a way of prepping the viewer gradually into a changing scene. The film sees offscreen space to use voice to make it more mysterious. Silence feels eerie despite having all silent films for most of film history up to this time. But these techniques have been used in plays for a long time.

There many unique angles like the beautiful stair architectural shots. Make people look unique and yet in a group for example a group of grotesque men talking politics. Lots of shots from above indicating power struggles. The people/masses are shown out of power and feel out of control.

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