Peeping Tom 1960

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It still packs a wallop. Maybe that's because, in cinema, we're all peeping toms. And the camera, in skillful hands, can be an exquisite instrument of terror. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Fear, as it turns out, is the most frightening thing in the world, and Peeping Tom makes us feel it palpably as few films have been able to do. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Peeping Tom reminds us of the scary, primitive power of movies by putting us, as viewers, in the position of its peeping protagonist. As the psychopath sets up his victims for the kill, we see them through his eyes. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: It's an understanding and at times even celebratory film -- attitudes that scandalized critics years ago and are still pretty potent today. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Though it effectively ended Mr. Powell's career, Peeping Tom is now considered a once-forbidden classic, an audacious act of self-cannibalization in which cinema itself is a lethal weapon. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Michael Powell's Peeping Tom is the best movie ever made about the voyeuristic allure of making and watching movies. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Peeping Tom's rediscovery, I fear, tells us more about fads in film criticism than it does about art. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movies make us into voyeurs. We sit in the dark, watching other people's lives. It is the bargain the cinema strikes with us, although most films are too well-behaved to mention it. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Today, thanks largely to a 1980 revival engineered by Powell enthusiast and fellow director Martin Scorsese, Peeping Tom is rightly seen as a horror classic and sophisticated psychological journey. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: A Freudian script of notable maturity teases limitless implications from this premise, while maintaining a healthy sense of humour. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Stripped of its color and some excellent photography plus imaginative direction by Michael Powell, the plot itself would have emerged as a shoddy yarn. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The original first-person horror film. Read more