Sneak a look at ‘Voyeurs’

Ever since Michael Fassbender’s pulsating performance against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Standard Hotel in “Shame,” we’ve been entranced by watching other people flagrantly engaged in sexual congress. OK, maybe we were interested even before then.

“The Voyeurs” is a great continuation on this theme. Young lovers Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and Thomas (Justice Smith) move into a slick apartment in cosmopolitan Montréal and realize they have a direct view into the windows of some fetching people across the street. Their first night, Pippa and Thomas are treated to some nudity but turn their gazes away before witnessing any coitus. “We’re officially being creepy weirdos!” But Pippa purchases a pair of binoculars the next day. Soon thereafter, she’s even trying to tease Thomas into duplicating their neighbors’ erotic acts.

They eventually conclude that the livestream would be better with audio, so Pippa and Thomas, a musician and tech guru, head over to a Halloween party to bug the place. They meet the sexpots in question — Seb (Ben Hardy), dressed as a satyr, is a photographer with a camera shutter that sounds like a thunderbolt. His partner, Julia (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), in costume as Margot Tenenbaum, is a former model.

After catching a whiff of their pheromones in real life, Pippa becomes obsessed with the couple, eavesdropping every free moment. One day she hears Seb warm up a client for a shoot by purring, “I’d love to go down on you.”

For whatever reason, Pippa determines the best way alert Julia of this betrayal is to send her messages via wireless printer. Sample missive: “YOUR HUSBAND IS CHEATING ON YOU.” It’s a fun idea that turns more intense when Julia brandishes a steak knife and runs into the bedroom.

This incident alarms Thomas but Pippa perseveres in her spycraft. When she picks up the binoculars seconds after promising him that she would stop for good, Thomas fades from the picture — his corporeal presence no match for her all-consuming voyeurism. The inevitable final step is for Pippa to meet with Seb one on one, which involves cocktails, Portishead, and a flirtatious retelling of Aesop’s “The Ass and His Masters.” Pippa knows all of his moves and yet…

“The Voyeurs’ is wholly focused on the act of looking from the opening credits, in which a cover version of “Eyes Without a Face” plays over images of pupils and irises. Pippa works at a ritzy ophthalmology practice, helping select hip frames for clients and assisting Dr. Sato (Jean Yoo) in operations. A scene showing laser eye surgery cuts directly to a soft-boiled yolk being sliced in half.

Director Michael Mohan seems to share Hitchcock’s hatred of eggs as well as a few other predilections from the master. While “Rear Window” boasts the acting prowess of Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, they never got naked. In that sense, Mohan’s cues come more strongly from Brian De Palma as he embraces the twisted, irresistible sleaze of it all.

Even if much of the script reads like a series of porn scenarios strung together, we can be grateful for “The Voyeurs.” There’s nothing wrong with making thrillers sexy again.