Podcasts
The Voyeuristic Pleasures of Proto-Slasher ‘Peeping Tom’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
![The Voyeuristic Pleasures of Proto-Slasher 'Peeping Tom' [Horror Queers Podcast]](https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/peeping-tom.jpg)
Not Your Grindr’s Voyeurism
We spent the better part of 2.5 months exploring an “underseen or underrated?” theme, including Gaspar Noé’s Climax and Kurtis David Harder‘s Spiral before wrapping up with Michael J. Ahern, Brandon Perras and Christopher Dalpe‘s independent film Death Drop Gorgeous last week. Now that we’re free of the 2010s, Trace and I are jumping back to 1960 to discuss Michael Powell’s proto-slasher, Peeping Tom.
In the film, Carl Boehm plays Mark Lewis, an introverted wannabe film director who works on movie sets by day, and shoots dirty photos in his spare. He also murders vulnerable women using a speared tripod leg as he films them, including his poor dancing co-worker Viv (Moira Shearer).
As Mark rushes to complete his snuff film, he initiates a tentative romance with his downstairs neighbour Helen (Anna Massey), which does not endear him to Helen’s blind and drunk mother, Mrs. Stephens (Maxine Audley). Will Helen fall victim to Mark’s passion project or will Mark learn to control his homicidal voyeuristic tendencies?
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Episode 170 – Peeping Tom (1960)
We’re jetting back to 1960 to check out Michael Powell’s classic Peeping Tom.
First: forget Psycho (ok, we can’t help but make comparisons!). But really, this film deserves more attention and recognition, and not just because it’s a trivia question in Scream 4!
Joe is adamant that the film is about more than gendered violence, while Trace has all of the medical deets about scopophilic fetishism aka voyeurism.
Plus: a Scorcese save, penis tripods, films within films (Singin’ in the Rain!), the film’s interest in disability, and our love of these female characters, especially Moira Shearer’s Vivian.
Cross out Peeping Tom!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re celebrating Spring Break a little late with Alexandre Aja’s 2010 remake, Piranha 3D!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 165 hours of additional content! This month, we’re discussing horror movies where the villain wins, as well as Hulu originals No Exit and Fresh, Ti West’s X and a 20th anniversary audio commentary on Blade II!
Maybe you haven’t thought about your good friend Sweeney Todd in a while, or maybe you have. The 2007 movie is a bit of a memory, though a fond one – it has a healthy 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, for what it’s worth. But 2023’s Broadway revival starring Josh Groban, who your mom thinks is “so talented” (she’s right!), was enough of a hit that its run was extended.
It appears we’re in a bit of a Sweeneyssaince.
For the uninitiated, Sweeney Todd is the story of a barber who kills his customers and disposes of the bodies by passing them off to pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, who uses them as a special ingredient. But there’s more below the trap door.
Sweeney Todd isn’t just a late 70s musical that turned into a movie; it started as a penny dreadful called The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance (author unknown), told week-to-week in the 1840s. Penny dreadfuls were essentially fiction zines featuring serialized stories that were usually horror-based and cost a penny, leading to the very literal nickname.
The String of Pearls differs from the more well-known Sweeney Todd plot in that it follows the investigation of a missing persons case that leads to the reveal of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett’s arrangement, as opposed to the more modern iteration which treats audiences to the duo hatching their homicidal plan and then giving the worst haircuts ever. What a delightfully wild reveal that must have been if you were a reader in Victorian London after weeks of wondering what had become of the missing sailor carrying a string of pearls to deliver to a lovely girl.
Kristen and Will discuss the history and future of Sweeney Todd and works inspired by it this week on Guide to the Unknown. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.
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