Peeping Tom's depiction of violence and its lurid sexual content made it a controversial film on initial release
[28] and the critical backlash heaped on the film was a major factor in finishing Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom.
[29] Karlheinz Böhm later remembered that after the film's premiere, nobody from the audience went to shake the hand of him or Michael Powell.
[30] A contemporary assessment of the film published in
The Telegraph noted that the film effectively "killed" Powell's career.
[3] British reviews tended towards the hyperbolic in negativity, an example being a review published in
The Monthly Film Bulletin which likened Powell to the
Marquis de Sade.
[31]
Derek Hill, reviewer of the
Tribune suggested that "the only really satisfactory way to dispose of
Peeping Tom would be to shovel it up and flush it swiftly down the nearest sewer."
[32] Len Mosley writing for the
Daily Express said that the film was more nauseating and depressing than the leper colonies of
East Pakistan, the back streets of
Bombay, and the gutters of
Calcutta.
[33] Caroline Lejeune of
The Observer wrote: "It's a long time since a film disgusted me as much as
Peeping Tom," ultimately deeming it a "beastly film.