Peeping Tom(1960)

POOPER:
Mark Lewis, scarred by his father’s fear experiments, films women as he murders them using a spiked camera tripod. He kills a prostitute and actress Vivian. His neighbor Helen shows kindness, but her blind mother senses his danger and is killed. Cornered by Helen and police, Mark reveals his traumatic childhood films. Instead of killing Helen, he turns the camera on himself, committing suicide by impaling himself on the spike while filming, leaving Helen to witness his final, self-recorded death.

Mark Lewis, scarred by his father’s fear experiments, films women as he murders them using a spiked camera tripod. He kills a prostitute and the actress Vivian. His neighbor, Helen, shows kindness, but her blind mother senses his danger and is killed. Cornered by Helen and the police, Mark reveals his traumatic childhood films. Instead of killing Helen, he turns the camera on himself, committing suicide by impaling himself on the spike while filming, leaving Helen to witness his final, self-recorded death.

LONG VERSION:
Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) is a withdrawn, obsessive young man working as a focus puller at a London film studio. He lives in a large house inherited from his cruel scientist father, renting part of it to the Stephens family: Helen Stephens (Anna Massey), a cheerful children’s book author, and her blind mother, Mrs. Stephens (Maxine Audley). Mark harbors a deep, pathological compulsion to film women in their moment of terror and death, stemming from being the subject of his father’s terrifying childhood experiments on fear.

Mark uses a portable 16mm camera, one leg of its tripod modified into a sharp spike. He commits his first on-screen murder by posing as a news photographer, luring a prostitute into an alley and stabbing her with the tripod leg while filming her dying expressions. He later screens this film in his private apartment above the Stephens’ flat. His next victim is Vivian (Moira Shearer), an ambitious stand-in actress at the studio. Under the guise of filming a documentary about “extra girls,” Mark gains access to her dressing room. He drugs her drink and films her terrified reaction as she discovers the body of the murdered prostitute (which Mark has placed there) before killing Vivian with the tripod spike.

Helen develops a friendly, sympathetic interest in Mark. She borrows one of his documentary films about “street life,” unaware of its disturbing content. Mark grows increasingly anxious as police, led by Inspector Gregg (Jack Watson), investigate the murders. Helen’s mother, Mrs. Stephens, senses Mark’s dangerous nature due to her blindness heightening her perception. Mark feels pressured by the investigation and Helen’s growing closeness. In a panic, he kills Mrs. Stephens when she confronts him in her flat, stabbing her off-screen. Helen discovers her mother’s body and flees to Mark’s apartment.

Cornered, Mark reveals his true nature to Helen. He shows her the horrifying films his father made of him as a child, subjected to various fear-inducing stimuli like lizards placed on his bed. Mark explains his compulsion to capture the perfect image of fear at the moment of death. He sets up his camera, intending to film Helen’s terror. However, consumed by guilt and despair, Mark turns the camera on himself. He positions the spiked tripod leg at his own throat and activates the camera motor, impaling himself. The film ends with the camera still running, capturing Mark’s own death throes as Helen watches in horrified silence.

ORDER OF DEATHS

• The Prostitute: Stabbed with the tripod spike by Mark Lewis in an alleyway while he films her death.
• Vivian: Drugged by Mark, then confronted with the prostitute’s body and stabbed with the tripod spike in her film studio dressing room while Mark films.
• Mrs. Stephens: Stabbed off-screen by Mark Lewis in her own flat after confronting him about his suspicious behavior.
• Mark Lewis: Commits suicide by impaling himself on the spiked tripod leg of his own camera, filming his own death as Helen watches.