Peeping Tom’s lasting influence and rehabilitation

This chapter is about the rehabilitation of Peeping Tom, its transformation in status from cult classic to general acceptance as a masterpiece. It also covers Martin Scorsese’s personal mission to promote the film and subsequent friendship with Michael Powell. In 1994 Dilys Powell, one of the film critics who in 1960 had written a negative review, took another look at Peeping Tom and decided she had been completely wrong to damn it. This change in opinion was representative of a general shift in attitude towards Horror films. By the 1980s the film viewing audience had changed immeasurably and Peeping Tom was no longer the shock to the system it had been in 1960. It started to gain a ‘cult classic’ following as film fans caught it on late-night TV and Scorsese helped spearhead a critical reappraisal of the film.