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From Michael Powell, the brilliant and acclaimed director of A Matter of Life And Death and Black Narcissus, comes a controversial masterpiece now recognised as one of the supreme achievements of British horror cinema. By day, clean cut Mark Lewis is a focus-puller at a film studio, supplementing his wages by taking girlie pictures above a seedy newsagent. By night he is a sadistic killer, stalking his victims, camera in hand, in an obsessive quest for the look of pure, unadulterated fear. On its release in 1960, Peeping Tom proved to be far more than British critics could handle; their fearsome reaction ruined Powell's career. Its stylish, cunning and brutally frank treatment of Mark Lewis' insanity brought forth comments such as, "The sickest and filthiest film I can remember seeing" (The Spectator), "Frankly Beastly" (Financial Times), and "Thoroughly nasty" (Daily Mail). Unavailable for many years, Peeping Tom was, through the efforts of film lovers including Martin Scorcese, at long last acknowledged as a cinematic masterwork, and the reputation of its maligned director restored.
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