Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) is a pseudo snuff film centred on the act of voyeurism. Although, Peeping Tom predates the horror subgenre, slashers, it still upholds the psychosexual elements that reside in such films (Clover). Released in the same year as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Peeping Tom can be cited as the aforementioned British equivalent, as the male central characters seem to share sadistic and psychopathic qualities. This film proves to be a self-reflexive metafilm as it surrounds a focus puller/ film director/ photographer and his manic spree of capturing women’s terror while murdering them. As the title goes, the film is about a voyeur. In fact, the narrative follows a sadistic, introverted Mark Lewis, who gains pleasure
…show more content…
Then, the scene cuts to a woman standing under a street light in the background of the scene and a man approaches the left of the frame in darkness. A reverse shot shows the man approaching with a camera hidden in his jacket that has three lenses. At this point, we still have not seen the man’s face. However, audiences are faced with the jarring image of observing someone being observed, with no sense of identification of a character. The next shot describes the beginning of a “double observance” (313), described by Jeremy Hawthorn in Morality, voyeurism and ‘point of view’: Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). The extradiegetic camera swallows the intradiegetic camera, by zooming in and then becoming the point of view for the approaching male. The meta-cinematic approaches of Peeping Tom emphasize the voyeuristic tendencies that come with watching a film; and as audience we are subjective to the voyeurism. The insertion of the audience into the texts expresses different levels of voyeurism and in watching the film we become active participants in the film’s narrative. Hawthorn expresses that this demands spectators “to see the voyeur while being the voyeur” (307). Correspondingly, after murdering his female victims
Then, the scene cuts to a woman standing under a street light in the background of the scene and a man approaches the left of the frame in darkness. A reverse shot shows the man approaching with a camera hidden in his jacket that has three lenses. At this point, we still have not seen the man’s face. However, audiences are faced with the jarring image of observing someone being observed, with no sense of identification of a character. The next shot describes the beginning of a “double observance” (313), described by Jeremy Hawthorn in Morality, voyeurism and ‘point of view’: Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). The extradiegetic camera swallows the intradiegetic camera, by zooming in and then becoming the point of view for the approaching male. The meta-cinematic approaches of Peeping Tom emphasize the voyeuristic tendencies that come with watching a film; and as audience we are subjective to the voyeurism. The insertion of the audience into the texts expresses different levels of voyeurism and in watching the film we become active participants in the film’s narrative. Hawthorn expresses that this demands spectators “to see the voyeur while being the voyeur” (307). Correspondingly, after murdering his female victims