Someone's Watching Me!

source: Someone's Watching Me!

Trailer—Someone's Watching Me!

Someone's Watching Me!

It's probably no surprise that John Carpenter was able to elevate the TV movie with Someone's Watching Me. It's a devilishly Hitchcockian yarn and Carpenter works in a few nail biting sequences and even some genuine jolts along the way. Lauren Hutton makes for a great, likable protagonist as a TV director who moves into a new high rise apartment and attracts a stalker across the way who begins sending her gifts and creepy phone calls. She involves her new friend (Adrienne Barbeau) and a potential boyfriend (David Birney) who may or may not end up becoming fodder for the stalker. Someone's Watching Me is a fairly typical and obvious story that's been told in several different variations over the years, but Carpenter shows that he's a director of incredible skill. Hutton is quite amusing as the lead who has long spells where she adorably talks to and jokes with herself. Barbeau is also excellent as her friend, Sophie - an out and proud lesbian (and on 70's primetime TV no less!)

An early John Carpenter film, I had never even heard of and surprisingly effective bearing in mind its 70s TV origins. So rather leisurely at first and I had bit of a problem with Lauren Hutton's character. She has a rather off putting way of 'joking about', or 'wacky' as she refers to it and also is rather blunt in her rebuttals of invitations from the opposite sex. This slightly awkward introduction to a leading lady with some baggage is compounded in the extraordinary moment when she makes the advances in a very 70s bar. but never mind, this soon gets going, everyone does a sterling job and carpenter really comes into his own as the movie progresses. The final half hour is as good as it gets and is pretty faultless. Effective music, varied and compelling camera work and increasingly believable dialogue. Well worth a watch for anyone and required for Carpenter fans who will see much that is further developed in later films.

John Carpenter's "Someone's Watching Me!" is a stylish thriller and I don't care if it's supposed to be heavily influenced by Hitchcock. Point is, Carpenter made a very decent thriller. You can clearly see there was a young director with a lot of talent at work here. The way he makes the camera move and how he chooses his angles. Good stuff. Even though the film doesn't really move along at a fast pace, it never gets boring. Carpenter uses good timing to inject certain scenes with a lot of suspense and he keeps the whole thing steadily going until the rather abrupt, but solid ending (with a very short & sweet – well not that sweet – climax). Decent lead by Lauren Hutton and a fun supporting roll by Adrienne Barbeau as her lesbian colleague. Someone will be watching this film again some time in the future. Someone else will be watching it too, because it's a Carpenter film I'll recommend to anybody who wants to hear about it.

John Carpenter's first tv movie, Someone's Watching Me! is perhaps the best tv horror movie this side of The Night Stalker. Made, I believe, right after Halloween, it's obviously inspired by that movie, but also stands up on its own. All of Carpenter's trademarks are present, from a strong female lead to some beautifully orchestrated scares. It's interesting to see his visual style, usually full cinemascope, applied to a tv screen. Despite the cheesy title and tv pedigree, I'd rate Someone's Watching Me! up there with the best of Carpenter's early work. As of this writing, I don't think it's on tape. Why the hell not?

I never expected that a TV movie like this early work from John "Thrillmaster" Carpenter could be thrilling and excellent as this one was made. Thanks Mr Carpenter. Excellent entertainment and terrific conclusion.

An early TV movie by director John Carpenter about Lauren Hutton who's being stalked in her apartment, you know the sort of thing. This is pretty good actually and it still plays well today. Definately one of my favorites, Halloween was made shortly after, I think.

It's John Carpenter's consummate craftsmanship that makes SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME! worth watching. Even on commercial television (which is just that: commercial after commercial after commercial), it came across as somewhat suspenseful. (Given the fact that kids with short attention span disorders can probably blame it all on too much time spent in front of the tube, Carpenter's ability to build suspense between snake oil salesmen endlessly hawking their wares is nothing less than amazing.) Lauren Hutton does a decent job in the lead (she's certainly more appealing a character than Jody Foster as Bernice Goetz in THE BRAVE ONE). Whether on television or the big screen, Carpenter has always managed to do movies that linger fondly in the memory long after the screen has gone dark.