Peeping Tom Quotes

Mrs. Stephens Take me to your cinema.

Vivian What would frighten me to death? Oh, set the mood for me, Mark.

Mark Imagine... someone coming towards you... who wants to kill you... regardless of the consequences.

Vivian A madman?

Mark Yes. But he knows it, and you don't. And just to kill you isn't enough for him. Stay there, Viv. You're just right.

Vivian But I can't imagine what you've thought of.

Mark Imagine... this would be one of his weapon.

Mark The lights fade too soon!

Mrs. Stephens They always do.

Mark I-I don't remember what he called it, but it has something to do with what... what causes people to be Peeping Toms.

Dr. Rosan Scoptophilia, that would interest him. Most fertile mind.

Mark Scopto...

Dr. Rosan ...philia. The morbid urge to gaze.

Arthur The silly bitch! She's fainted in the wrong scene!

Mrs. Stephens I don't trust a man who walks quietly.

Helen He's shy.

Mrs. Stephens His footsteps aren't. They're stealthy.

Mark Do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is? It's fear. So I did something very simple. Very simple. When they felt the spike... touching their throat, and knew I was going to kill them, I made them watch their own deaths. I made them see... their own terror as the spike went in. And if death has a face, they saw that too. But not you. I promised I'd never photograph you. Not you.

Mark I'm afraid. And I'm glad I'm afraid.

Mrs. Stephens Helen?

Helen Yes?

Mrs. Stephens Doesn't matter.

Helen Mother, what's worrying you?

Mrs. Stephens The price of whiskey.

Mrs. Stephens Why don't we make him a present of that window? He practically lives there.

Helen How did you know he was there?

Mrs. Stephens The back of my neck told me. The part that I talk out of.

Vivian Now what are you doing?

Mark Photographing you photographing me.

Helen Mark, what was he trying to do to you?

Mark Watch me grow up. He wanted a record of a growing child, complete in every detail, if such a thing were possible. And he tried to make it possible by training a camera on me at all times. I never knew the whole of my childhood one moment's privacy. And those lights in your eyes and that thing. He was interested in the reactions... of the nervous system to... to fear.

Mrs. Stephens Instinct's a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mark? A pity it can't be photographed. So, I'm listening to my instinct now. And it says all this filming isn't healthy, and that you need help.

Mark Whatever I photograph, I always lose.