#35 - Someone's Watching Me! (1978)

 

Someone's Watching Me! (1978)

(dir. John Carpenter)

This made-for-TV film was written and directed by John Carpenter immediately before he made Halloween. It's about a woman named Leigh Michaels who moves to LA to start a new career, and almost as soon as she moves into her high-rise apartment she starts receiving strange phone calls and packages. She goes to the police, but they are of course unhelpful assholes, so she decides to take control of the situation and find out who is harassing her. It feels like much more of traditional suspense thriller than it does a straight horror film like Halloween, but you can see some of the DNA of that film in this.

I thought this was pretty decent. I really like Lauren Hutton in the lead role - she is smart and funny and right from the start doesn't take shit from anyone. Adrienne Barbeau (who Carpenter would later marry and also direct in The Fog) plays Lauren's friend Sophie, and she's good too. There are a couple of really good tense scenes, especially one where Leigh is hiding under a grate while the stalker stands right above her, and another later on in her dark apartment.

Like a lot of television films from the '70s that I've seen, it has a bit of flat look to it. Not ugly exactly, but definitely less visually interesting than Carpenter's theatrical work. I suppose that's both a budget thing and a limitation of the small screens it would be watched on. Also Carpenter didn't write the music, which makes it feel less like one of his films.

All in all I'd call this a solid thriller but definitely a lesser John Carpenter film. If you're a fan I think it's worth watching but it's not essential.