Top 10 Voyeur Movies

What happens when your car breaks down and you’re forced to stay at the worst motel ever? Well, if you’re Kate Beckinsale’s and Luke Wilson’s characters in this horror thriller, you almost get killed. In “Vacancy,” the actors play a married couple that winds up at a curiously vacant motel, only to further discover that it’s essentially the go-to destination for snuff films. They soon discover each room is wired with cameras, and that they’re constantly being watched by the uncharismatic motel manager who’s got it in for the next pair of potential victims – that is, if they don’t make it out alive first.

Back before Shia LaBeouf was engaging in disturbing behavior in public, he was starring in “Disturbia” as a troubled teen under house arrest. Borrowing liberally from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller “Rear Window”, “Disturbia” follows the story of a teenage boy who believes he’s witnessed his neighbor commit a murder. Kale is hobbled with an ankle monitor and 3 months of home confinement after he attacks a teacher, but the boredom of his sentence eventually leads him to spying. And the spying leads him to get a glimpse of some questionable, and possibly deadly, activity by the mysterious Robert Turner.

In this Oscar-nominated thriller, Gene Hackman stars as Harry Caul, a surveillance specialist with a guilty conscience. His new mission requires that he record a couple’s conversation in the park, which he does successfully. But once he filters the recording, he’s wracked with anxiety at the possibility that the recording could lead to their deaths. Even further, he finds his reluctance to turn over the tape has placed him on the receiving end of covert surveillance. By the end of the film, he’s the one being watched.

One minute you’re a sound guy on a movie, just trying to follow your boss’s orders. And the next, you’re in the middle of a wide-scale political conspiracy, just trying to stay alive. In this Brian De Palma thriller, John Travolta trades in his dancing shoes to play said moviesound tech Jack Terry. After being instructed to record a realistic sounding scream for a particular scene, he ends up witnessing a car accident that’s not completely cut and dry. Jack quickly realizes that he’s recorded some damning audio and is desperate to make the info public. But he’s got some high-ranking conspirators to contend with.

While digital selfies may’ve made photo-processing centers all but obsolete, there was a time when a one-hour photo guy could have been low-key stalking you. In one of his more disturbing performances, this psychological thriller sees Robin Williams play Sy Parrish, a lonely photo technician working in a developing clinic. His life literally pales in comparison to that of the Yorkin family, with whom he’s developed a particular obsession while developing their family pictures and making copies of them for himself. This infatuation with their seemingly idyllic life comes to a violent conclusion that also shatters the façade they’ve been living, and all but destroys Sy’s life.

While a significant portion of “American Beauty” follows the exploits of Lester Burnham, the film’s protagonist, also of note is Ricky Fitts, the neighbor’s kid. Fitts is about as emo as most suburban teenagers, but he’s also edgy because he deals drugs. He seems to have a particular fascination with viewing the world through the lens of a camera, which he does - frequently. Filming plastic bags as well as his love interest, who happens to be Lester’s daughter, Ricky has the tables turned on him when his own father spies on him and Lester through the garage window.

If it seems that sometimes the entire world revolves around you, then you might be onto something. In this insightful serio-comedy, Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, your average, run-of-the-mill surburbanite with a regular job and a doting wife, and really happy, attentive neighbors. What he doesn’t know, however, is that his entire life is a lie; a fabrication. In actuality, he’s the star of a reality show that has followed him since birth, creating a world contained within a giant soundstage. And his existence has been watched by millions for years on end, 24/7. Talk about a lack of privacy.

This Oscar-winning German film shows us that sometimes watching people can have a life-changing effect on others. Set in East Germany in 1984, the story follows that of a Stasi agent who’s been tasked with monitoring a playwright and his girlfriend. The Stasi agent becomes disillusioned with the government he works for, particularly after realizing that his mission was prompted by his boss’s romantic obsession with the playwright’s girlfriend. Eventually, he begins to empathize so fully with the people he’s watching that he loses sight of his mission altogether.

When a movie is so controversial it ruins the director’s career, obviously you HAVE to see it. This 1960 British thriller may have been too scandalous for audiences at the time, but the story of a serial killer who stalks and kills his victims on video camera would fit right in decades later. This disturbed cameraman moonlighting as a rampaging killer on the side likes to watch the murders he commits on videotape later and revels in his victims’ last moments. Snuff films and brief nudity may have scandalized British audiences at the time, but this was way before the Internet.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “Sliver” (1993)
- “Being John Malkovich” (1999)
- “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)
- “The ‘Burbs” (1989)

Hitchcock has a thing for watching people. Similar to the voyeurism element in “Psycho”, “Rear Window” is full of peeping toms. But instead of a serial killer watching his victims through a peephole, this film’s protagonist is a photographer with a broken leg. Jeff’s wheelchair-bound and confined to his home due to his injury, so naturally he starts watching his neighbors in the apartment complex next door. When he witnesses what he believes is a murder committed by one of the occupants, Jeff pulls out his home detective hat and goes about investigating with the help of his girlfriend. With 4 Oscar nods, it’s also undoubtedly one of Hitchcock’s best.

Do you agree with our list? What do you think is the best voyeur movie? For more entertaining top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.