Peeping Tom

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A disturbed filmmaker (Carl Boehm) literally kills with his camera in this ahead-of-its-time shocker from revered British director Michael Powell. Like the same year's Psycho, this film's combination of voyeurism, eroticism and horror repelled some 1960 critics, but its cult reputation soared in later years. Moira Shearer (star of Powell's The Red Shoes) makes an appearance, as does Powell himself (as Boehm's father in flashback).
Netflix Rating: 3.4
Rotten Tomatoes: Fresh 93%: Consensus: Peeping Tom is a chilling, methodical look at the psychology of a killer, and a classic work of voyeuristic cinema.
Fresh: 28 Rotten: 2 Rotten Tomatoes page
Top Rotten Tomatoes Critics: Stripped of its color and some excellent photography plus imaginative direction by Michael Powell, the plot itself would have emerged as a shoddy yarn. full review

Variety Staff, Variety

It's an understanding and at times even celebratory film -- attitudes that scandalized critics years ago and are still pretty potent today. full review

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Peeping Tom's rediscovery, I fear, tells us more about fads in film criticism than it does about art. full review

Vincent Canby, New York Times

Though it effectively ended Mr. Powell's career, Peeping Tom is now considered a once-forbidden classic, an audacious act of self-cannibalization in which cinema itself is a lethal weapon. full review

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

The original first-person horror film. full review

J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Today, thanks largely to a 1980 revival engineered by Powell enthusiast and fellow director Martin Scorsese, Peeping Tom is rightly seen as a horror classic and sophisticated psychological journey. full review

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

The movies make us into voyeurs. We sit in the dark, watching other people's lives. It is the bargain the cinema strikes with us, although most films are too well-behaved to mention it. full review

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times