Peeping Tom: 65 Years On

The controversial film that all but destroyed Michael Powell’s career remains a bracingly uncomfortable horror masterpiece

Credit: Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors/StudioCanal

I was introduced to Michael Powell’s controversial masterpiece Peeping Tom at the impressionable age of sixteen by my A-Level Media Studies teacher. She was a wonderfully eccentric character and the best kind of mentor, inspiring me to delve deep into the many treasures cinema history had to offer, including those treasures considered contentious and transgressive. Peeping Tom more than qualifies on that score, as the film was greeted with scandalised reviews and outraged audiences in Britain when released in 1960.