From the dawn of cinema, there have been films about people spying on others.
From Rear Window with James Stewart to The Voyeurs with Sydney Sweeney, Hollywood has always been fascinated with the allure of watching someone — or something — you shouldn’t.
Watch With Us has curated a list of the best voyeuristic movies available to stream right now on Netflix, Tubi, Prime Video and more.
From a pair of Alfred Hitchcock classics to a horror movie about bloodthirsty next-door neighbors, these films capture all the thrills and dangers of spying on others.
‘Rear Window’ (1954)
The granddaddy of peeping tom movies, Hitchcock’s Rear Window set the blueprint for all the voyeuristic movies to come. James Stewart stars as L.B. Jeffries, a professional photographer confined to his swanky Greenwich Village apartment thanks to an on-the-job accident. With his handy telephoto camera, he spies on his neighbors, who include married jewelry salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr). When Thorwald’s wife disappears, L.B. thinks Lars murdered her. To prove it, he’ll need the help of saucy nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) and model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly). But L.B.’s curiosity may soon kill more than the neighbor cat as Lars begins to suspect someone is watching him.
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Rear Window is over 70 years old, yet none of its thrills have dulled with time. Hitchcock is called a master of suspense for a reason, and the way he builds up tension as L.B. gradually pieces together what happened to Lars’ wife is nothing short of electric. Stewart and Kelly emanate Old Hollywood movie star vibes, and they make the act of spying on your neighbor somehow romantic.
Rear Window is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Psycho’ (1960)
Hitchcock again, only this time he pushes it further than he — or any other director — ever has with Psycho, the movie that gave birth to the slasher film. You pretty much know the film’s story — Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) checks into the Bates Motel after stealing some money, befriends the motel’s owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and is brutally killed while taking a shower by Norman’s mother, Mrs. Bates. The shocking ending reveals Mrs. Bates hasn’t been alive for years — it was Norman dressed in drag who killed Marion!
What triggers Norman’s murderous rage? Hitchcock shows us, with probably the most famous voyeuristic scene in film history. As Marion undresses to get into the shower, Norman watches her through a peephole from an adjoining room. The sight of Marion’s nude body triggers Norman’s “Mother” personality, who disapproves of her shy son becoming sexually aroused. What’s a mother to do? How about solving the problem by stabbing it dozens of times? After this scene, poor Marion’s fate is sealed, and a film classic is born.
Rent or purchase Psycho on Prime Video.
‘Body Double’ (1984)
Every great teacher has their students, and for Hitchcock no one was more devoted to mimicking the Master than Brian De Palma. The director loved Hitch’s voyeuristic fascination with his subjects, and that was never more evident than in his mid-’80s exploitation masterpiece, Body Double.
When out-of-work actor Jake Scully accepts a friend’s invitation to house-sit his luxurious Hollywood Hills home, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. But when he spies an attractive neighbor, Gloria (Deborah Shelton), performing a seductive dance in her underwear via a telescope, is it any surprise that Jake instantly falls madly in love — and lust — with the woman? That’s why he comes to her rescue when he spots someone else watching her, someone with motives more sinister than Jake’s. But who is this other voyeur? And why does he want to hurt Gloria?
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That’s only part of Body Double’s complicated plot, which sees Jake venture to high-class stores in Rodeo Drive to porn sets in West Hollywood to solve the mystery. Jake’s voyeurism is both his strength and weakness — he saves Gloria’s life by spying on her, but also endangers his own by doing so. Body Double is a movie all about watching others, creating fantasies about the person you’re spying on and finding out that the fantasy never matches the reality. By the end, Jake learns a hard lesson about being a voyeur — sometimes it’s better not to watch at all.
Body Double is streaming on Tubi.
‘Fright Night’ (1985)
Next-door neighbors can be annoying, but for teenage Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), they can be deadly — literally. After the handsome Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) moves in, Charlie notices something is off about him — he stays up all night, doesn’t like garlic and has an aversion to crucifixes. His suspicions are confirmed when he sees Jerry bite a woman’s neck: the dude is a vampire! No one believes him, of course, save for Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell), a washed-up host of a late-night cable horror show, Fright Night. Can the two men stop a supernatural force they only know about from old movies?
Fright Night works primarily because it taps into a temptation we all experience when someone new moves into our neighborhood. We’re all curious to know more, so it’s all the more scary when Charley discovers he’s living next door to an unholy being who is stronger, quicker and better-looking than he is.
Fright Night has lots of fun with its premise, blending horror and comedy into an entertaining package that’s both slick and kinda campy. In this movie, Charlie’s voyeurism is rewarded — he defeats evil and saves his girlfriend, Amy (Married With Children alum Amanda Bearse). Every teenage boy who watched Fright Night probably learned the wrong lesson, but who cares when the film is this enjoyable?
‘Watcher’ (2022)
Isolation has become the new normal for Julia (Maika Monroe): The New Yorker and her husband (Karl Glusman) have moved to Bucharest for his work, and while he puts in extra hours, she’s left to her own devices with only a smattering of Romanian at her disposal. As an actress who’s “reevaluating,” her days are empty. And with screaming headlines about a serial killer dubbed “The Spider,” naturally she’s spooked when someone across the street seems to be watching her — even more so when a man sits directly behind her at a matinee in a nearly empty theater.
Is it the same person? Are Julia’s fears legit? Or is she seeing things that aren’t there? Her husband’s concern only goes so far before turning to condescension in this disquieting, atmospheric thriller from first-time director Chloe Okuno. As Julia’s world narrows to this one fixation, Hitchcock fans will certainly notice more than a touch of Rear Window.
Monroe is setting herself up nicely in the genre: If you didn’t see her breakthrough, 2014’s It Follows, you probably did catch her in last year’s buzzy but flawed Longlegs. She’s terrific here, conveying palpable fear and a surprising amount of ballsiness in a dialogue-light role. If you need any more convincing to become a Watcher, er, watcher, know that it plays out in a brisk 96 minutes, after which you can finally exhale.
Watcher is streaming on Netflix.
‘The Voyeurs’ (2021)
Sydney Sweeney was a hot commodity thanks to HBO’s Euphoria when she made this just-go-with-it erotic thriller. As a Montreal optometrist newly shacking up with her composer boyfriend (Justice Smith), she’s astonished to see that the sexed-up couple across the street (Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo) have opted to go without curtains. Soon, “Wow, you can see right in” becomes a full-on peeping obsession that includes surveillance, too (the better to hear how this photographer neighbor is able to seduce all sorts of other women when wifey’s away). The not entirely logical next steps: plot twists and death.
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While it’s interesting to note how much It Actress Sweeney has evolved, overall, we’re filing The Voyeurs under “so bad it’s good.” Suspend high expectations as well as disbelief, and you’ll be plenty entertained. That means scenes of genuine titillation, plus opportunities for tittering as well — as when a “philosophical” discussion of porn and masturbation includes Sweeney’s Pippa declaring, “A vibrator doesn’t have feelings.” Well said!
The Voyeurs is streaming on Prime Video and Tubi.
