Exploring the use of voyeurism and POV shots in horror cinema
At the beginning of John Carpenter’s Halloween, the camera positions us as though we’re the killer. We approach the suburban house and look through the window at a kissing couple who decide to take things upstairs before entering through the back door, grabbing a knife, and heading to the bedroom. Here, a young, naked woman is subsequently killed, with the camera obscured by the mask the killer is wearing. Still, we see a knife waving in the air as the terrified woman eventually falls to the ground, her breasts covered in blood.
It is one of the most iconic opening scenes in horror history. The point-of-view shot ends after the murder, and we’re then greeted with an image of the killer holding the bloody knife – it’s a small child. The movie then skips forward to introduce us to adult Michael Myers, who has escaped from a mental institution and is now ready to kill again. He stalks the neighbourhood and sets his sights on Laurie Strode, lurking on the school grounds, behind hedges, and peering through windows.
Halloween is one of the most well-known slashers, and central to its exploration of terror is voyeurism. Not only does the opening POV shot implicate the viewer in the crime, as though we are partly responsible for not stopping it, but the film also relies on a fetishistic and voyeuristic gaze that has come to define many horror movies. When we see a murder from the eyes of the killer, this is even more damning than if we were watching the violence pan out from a different angle. We are given the same access to the victim’s torture and suffering as the one wielding the weapon, allowing audiences a point of view that, outside of cinema and swerving any of their own murderous ambitions, they will never experience.
Cinema allows us to experience the perspective of a violent killer, and for that reason, these kinds of movies often call into question the ethics of watching gruesome horror movies as a source of entertainment. When a character, most likely female (and sometimes scantily clad or naked), is being brutally killed, what are we getting from the film? When this murder is shown from a first-person perspective, it makes the question even more potent. This brings to mind Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, in which the filmmaker played with the audience’s expectations in order to question our exposure and desensitisation to violence.
Voyeurism and horror are intrinsically linked. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, a mystery thriller, the Master of Suspense paved the way for this connection, with James Stewart’s Jeff, wheelchair-bound with half his body in a plaster cast, forced to observe events from his window without being able to investigate first hand. He tries to piece together the puzzle of a murder, distanced from the crime, while also acting as a key witness. Similarly, as audience members watching horror movies, we become like Jeff, watching from a distance yet wholly involved in the course of events. POV and voyeuristic shots help to isolate the viewer in the narrative and leave them equally as helpless as the victims on screen.
Hitchcock used voyeurism and a POV shot in Psycho, too, which features a classic sequence in which, from the killer’s perspective (before we become aware of their identity), we witness the stabbing of Marion Crane. She, like Judith in Halloween, is naked (although we mainly see her torso). The fact that she is killed in the shower is the ultimate invasion of privacy. The camera occupies a private space, gaining sadistic pleasure from entering an area where people are typically alone.
Peeping Tom, released the same year as Psycho, also features POV shots from the killer’s perspective, centring voyeurism as a vital aspect of the narrative. The killer views the women in Peeping Tom as sexual objects, and this brings up many questions about the role of the male gaze in horror movies. In certain slashers, we see female characters reach their demises while wearing very little – even in Halloween, not only is Judith seen naked, but so is Lynda, whose bare breasts are on full display as she is murdered by Myers. So often, the deaths of female characters possess a layer of eroticism to them, and this is emphasised by the presence of voyeurism.
Fear and eroticism are blended into one to arouse titillation and attention in the viewer. There is something so terrifying about the idea of being watched without your knowledge, but the reaction this elicits in the viewer is heightened when eroticism is involved – e.g., looking through bedroom windows and peepholes, sneaking into bathrooms, or watching people having sex before attacking.
That’s not to say that every horror movie features a male gaze or is framed in a misogynistic, objectifying way. There are many things to consider: does the film feature a final girl who outsmarts the killer and proves to be an independent and capable character? Do the male characters also get killed in a similar way? Does the nudity feel gratuitous and exploitative? Has the film been directed by a woman? Regardless, the fact that many horror movies feature male killers spying on female characters makes these films an even scarier viewing experience for female audiences.
The allure of horror movies thus varies depending on who is watching, although one thing is for certain: horror films often force us to become voyeurs, regardless of our gender, provoking a mixture of feelings like anxiety, isolation, titillation, and fear. We become as bad as the killers in the film, hoping for more brutal and inventive kills, not stopping to consider the fact we’re finding gruesome violence entertaining.
There is a lot to consider regarding the role of POV shots and voyeurism in horror, wrapped up with explorations of ethics, morality, and gender. The use of these filming and narrative techniques are some of the most influential found in the horror genre, and the impact of Halloween’s opening sequence or the Psycho shower scene echoes through countless terrifying films – because what’s scarier than the thought of being watched and your private space disturbed?
