Peeping Tom (1960 film)
| Peeping Tom | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Powell |
| Written by | Leo Marks |
| Produced by | Michael Powell |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Noreen Ackland |
| Music by | Brian Easdale |
Production company | Michael Powell (Theatre) |
| Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors |
Release date |
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Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £133,394 |
| Box office | $149,495 |
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological horror-thriller film directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey and Maxine Audley. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable film camera to record their dying expressions of terror, putting his footage together into a snuff film used for his own self-pleasure. Its title derives from the expression "Peeping Tom", which describes a voyeur.
The film's controversial subject matter and its extremely harsh reception by critics had a severely negative impact on Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now widely considered a masterpiece, and a progenitor of the contemporary slasher film. The British Film Institute named it the 78th-greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the 27th-best British film ever.
The music score was written by Brian Easdale and performed by Australian pianist Gordon Watson.