4. Peeping Tom (1960)
Mark Lewis is a shy and retiring young man who works as part of a film crew. He photographs women in soft core poses and sells them under the counter. He lives in his dead father's house and acts as a landlord to a family below him, he is taken by Helen the young mother. However, behind this skittish demeanour, Mark is a vicious, voyeuristic, murderous pervert who kills young women while filming them. Apparently as a child, he was heavily experimented upon by his eminent psychiatrist father who was studying the effects of fear. Mark's camera is always rolling, he says he is making a documentary film but when a woman turns up dead on set, investigations begin. Mark kills again - a girl called Millie and downstairs Helen becomes interested in his work and wants to see some of his films. He goes to kill her but finds out that he doesn't have it in him. As the police sirens come ever closer, Mark has no option but to kill himself. Made in the same year as Hitchcock's Psycho, Peeping Tom is a trail blazing British horror film that would not be appreciated for the pioneering masterpiece it is for several decades. It ruined eminent director Michael Powell's career as a director in Britain and he had to skedaddle to Australia on the other side of the globe. Ironically both Hitchcock and Powell knew each other and respected each other's work. The two films share similarities - apparently mild mannered men turn out to be killers because of what their parents did to them as children. It is likely that upon seeing the press hullabaloo over Peeping Tom, Hitchcock avoided screenings for the press with Psycho. Hitchcock's film turned out to be very popular with audiences so certain sections of the press had to pay attention to public opinion and give praise to the great man. All Powell got was opprobrium but in 1978, a group of film directors including Martin Scorsese launched a campaign to rehabilitate Peeping Tom's formidable reputation. I think that it is a much more disturbing film than Psycho - which has been overviewed and parodied so often. The voyeuristic nature of the film turns us all into 'Peeping Toms' as we watch the horror unfold on the screen. Simultaneously an horrific experience and a masterpiece in film making.