During that famous run of films from the late 70s to late 80s, John Carpenter made so many stone-cold classics, cult classics, and pop culture touchstones that it seems criminal he’s not revered in the same manner a Spielberg or Scorcese are. Even when working under studio restrictions at this time, he could still squeeze some good juice out of anything.
He was quite the busy bee putting out multiple movies in a short time span. While most found their space to breathe and become revered Carpenter films in their own right, others were less fortunate (Carpenter directed Kurt Russell in an Elvis biopic, and it’s weird that’s not a bigger deal). Halloween saw his status grow massively when it was released in 1978, for instance, but it dwarfed his other horror movie that year.
It’s not entirely unfair that Someone’s Watching Me! is overlooked compared to its fellow 45-year-old Carpenter sibling. It’s a TV movie that’s nowhere near as easy to get a hold of (my own copy is a Spanish import) as Halloween, and it suffers from the made-for-TV dilution and similar women being stalked themes.
But Someone’s Watching Me! makes for an interesting companion piece not only to Halloween, but to Carpenter’s most recent directorial effort for his Suburban Screams television show. It sees a woman named Leigh (Lauren Hutton) move into a high-rise apartment building, seemingly needing a fresh start. Things begin quite well in her new home, but an increasingly obtrusive stalking presence invades her life, and nobody wants to believe her. So, she takes matters into her own hands.
It’s fairly tame on the violence front, but Carpenter manages to wring tension and unease out of the film with plenty of Hitchcock by way of De Palma-style visual work. The stalker appears to know about Leigh’s movements with unnatural accuracy, which leads Leigh to view every place as a potential danger, but leaving enough initial doubt about how close this stalker actually is until they get super confident in not being rumbled by any outside forces. There’s a deliciously mocking scene where the stalker makes it clear just how close they are with a pointed message within Leigh’s home.
Exasperated by a lack of help, Leigh accepts that she must take on her hidden foe, and Lauren Hutton’s already strong performance goes up a level as she defiantly turns the tables on her oppressor.
Hutton elevates the film beyond standard television fare. When compared to the young, naive Laurie Strode, she’s a bit more streetwise, has a lot more personality, and doesn’t feel entirely consumed by the genre trappings she finds herself in. The difference is it’s implied Leigh is already a survivor of some horrifying situation before she even moved to the high rise. So there’s a special edge to her defiance and anger in the finale.
Despite this, it is undeniably difficult to shake the feeling Someone’s Watching Me! could have been something greater if it wasn’t held by televisual restraints. Sure, it would likely still have to go up against Halloween, but it would perhaps have been able to tap into an even darker side as well as being more readily available for horror fans to appreciate.
