Peeping Tom (DVD)

A piercing new 4K restoration of Michael Powell's iconic serial killer classic, restored by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive.

Mark (Carl Boehm), a focus puller at the local film studio, supplements his wages by taking glamour photographs in a seedy studio above a newsagent. By night he is a sadistic killer, stalking his victims with his camera forever in hand, striving to capture the look of genuine, unadulterated terror - an obsession that stems from his disturbing and terrifying childhood at the hands of his scientist father. Mark slowly becomes enamoured with Helen (Anna Massey), who lives in the flat downstairs with her blind mother (Maxine Audley). How long before he turns the deadly gaze of his camera towards her?

Written by Leo Marks (Twisted Nerve), Peeping Tom stars Carl Boehm (Sissi), Anna Massey (Frenzy), Moira Shearer (The Red Shoes) and Maxine Audley (A King in New York). Now regarded as a ground-breaking milestone of the British horror movement, on its initial release in 1960, the film was savaged by critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter, and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist. This was the second film by visionary director Michael Powell, following his run of classics collaborating with screenwriter Emeric Pressburger in the 40s and 50s,

Peeping Tom temporarily left Powell's career in tatters, and the film was made unavailable for many years. However the film has since become recognized as a watershed in genre cinema, its themes of voyeurism and psychopathy proving hugely influential on the evolution of the slasher movie.

• Take Me To Your Cinema: The Legacy of Peeping Tom
• Restoring Peeping Tom
• The Eye of the Beholder
• Intro by Martin Scorsese (2007)
• Interview with Thelma Schoonmaker (2007)
• Audio Commentary by Professor Ian Christie
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• More TBC