Mark explains to a potential victim (Anna Massey) how his (mad of course) scientist father filmed him constantly as a child and liked to stimulate fear in him with various props including lizards, filming his reaction. Mark is pretty screwed up and acts incredibly weirdly but then again with his twisted upbringing is it any wonder?
A controversial film to say the least but what made it most shocking was probably the humanisation of the murderer. Mark is as much a victim as the unfortunates he kills, a difficult message to portray back then (even now), the film destroyed the director Michael Powell's career but survives as a testament to intelligent and daring film making.
