10 Best Slasher Films Of All Time

Peeping Tom opened shortly before Psycho in the UK – and promptly wrecked the career of its director. In 1960, Michael Powell was the much-lauded co-director of The Tales Of Hoffmann, A Matter Of Live And Death and The Red Shoes, but here he was directing a sleazy film about a photographer who murders women and captures their expressions on film. Had he lost his mind?

It may involve a psychopathic killer, but Powell’s film couldn’t be more different from Psycho. It’s a cold, detached film that never skimps on the portrayal of London’s seamier side. The first scene shows the main character meeting – and then murdering – a prostitute, which is very different from Psycho’s “controversial” shots of Janet Leigh in her underwear.

Grim and unrelenting, this is by no means a “fun” picture, but it appears to have influenced Hitchcock’s later career. Returning to London in 1972 to shoot Frenzy, Hitch not only cast Anna Massey, Peeping Tom’s lead actress, but when it came to staging the first murder, Hitch showed it in full close-up, just like Powell.