Some Peeping Tom classics that are worth another look
Movies can offer a look into a character’s soul, but some offer a peep into their window, too.
Some things are better left (un)seen. With “The Voyeurs” starring Sydney Sweeney now on Amazon Prime, here are three films about unsolicited spying, peeping and peering.
Rear Window (1954)
No voyeur-centric film list would be complete without Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.” The 1954 classic stars Jimmy Stewart (photo) and Grace Kelly as a recently injured, temporarily wheelchair-bound photographer and his girlfriend, respectively. As L.B. Jefferies, Stewart’s cabin fever pushes him to use his camera as a means of peering into the windows of neighbors, one of whom he becomes convinced has committed murder.
One of Hitch’s finest, this four-time Oscar nominee isn’t the only work of his involving voyeurism. Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates has a habit of peeping in on Bates Motel guests — or victims — in “Psycho,” which took the world by storm and changed showers forever just six years later.
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video or Showtime
Peeping Tom (1960)
Sure, a film about a man who uses a camera to film his victims’ last expressions before he murders them essentially ended the directing career of Michael Powell. But this once-controversial psychological horror-thriller — which now holds a 96% fresh rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — now lives on as, as Jami Bernard wrote for the Daily News in 1999, “the best movie ever made about the voyeuristic allure of making and watching movies.”
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, or Hoopla Digital
American Beauty (1997)
Alan Ball’s Oscar-winning black comedy script centers on a middle-aged suburban husband and father whose zest for life returns with an infatuation for the best friend (Mena Suvari) of his teenage daughter. Enter a neighbor who deals pot and films his girlfriend and her dad through their window and Sam Mendes’ portrayal of a once-quiet anywhere America street turns deadly.
Available to stream on PlutoTV