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.

Actually, although all the films mentioned above (REAR WINDOW, DEEP RED etc) may have influenced this movie, the most obvious reference point is the British chiller IF IT'S A MAN, HANG UP!!- the only episode of Brian Clemens' legendary 70s TV series THRILLER that was broadcast in US cinemas as well as on television. It has practically the same plot (with a few more characters and a few more red herrings) and Carpenter's heroine (Lauren Hutton) bears an astonishing resemblance to this production's Carol Lynley.There are differences, and the final few minutes of both films are very unalike indeed, and Hutton is lonely and cautious whereas Lynley's character is promiscuous- but the principle remains intrinsically the same. Carpenter, like Hooper, is a known Anglophile, and it's not the first time these similarities have been noted either- ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, while mainly compared to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, is also a direct descendant of early Brit crime B-movies such as ESCAPE BY NIGHT and LIFE IN DANGER, while HALLOWEEN takes much of its basis from Peter Collinson's FRIGHT (1972). That doesn't make them any less great as films, of course, but these things should be pointed out. And of course, both he AND Brian Clemens love Hitchcock, as do most people.

I was so excited to see the 'forgotten' John Carpenter film finally getting a DVD release. He's one of my favorite directors. Unfortunately this is one of his weakest films and probably my least favorite.It's not all bad and has some genuinely tense moments, but they are few and far between. I'm not sure if John Carpenter just wasn't feeling it with this one or if it was due to the constraints of it being a T.V. movie with the constant breaks required for commercials. Whatever it is, the film is a series of peaks and valleys. The pace is off. You just don't get enough of a feeling of building tension. It's funny, because this film was preceded by Halloween and followed by The Fog and both are excellent, suspenseful films.In this movie there are a number of good scenes. The bits with the laundry room, the park at night, the penthouse, the search of a house and the last fifteen minutes are great. But in between there are plenty of dull spots.The music was kind of irritating. I wish John Carpenter had gotten to score this one like he does most of his movies. But he didn't and the music is here seems like a swipe of better music from other suspense movies and at times was just inappropriate for the scene. The best part musically was a scene where Leigh is opening a strange package that was synced to Vivaldi's 'Winter'. That part was very well done, but also pointed out how bad the rest of the music was.Also, Lauren Hutton just didn't seem right for the part. She's a good actress and the part was written well, but the two didn't seem to connect.One highlight of the movie is Adrienne Barbeau. She is terrific in her part. It's easy to see why J.C. used her in his future movies (well, aside from their marriage). I wish she were in the movie more.Also, I applaud him for writing in a positive lesbian character. It must have been scandalous for a T.V. movie from 1978. She wasn't stereotypical, never made any 'sinister' passes at our heroine and also wasn't portrayed as the 'magical gay character'. Kudos to John Carpenter.This movie is worth a rental. But compared to what John Carpenter had done before and would do in the future, this entry was weak.

Sassy TV director Leigh Michaels (an engagingly spunky and spirited performance by the lovely Lauren Hutton) arrives in Los Angeles and moves into a swanky high-rise apartment. Some peeping tom creep starts stalking her from afar, taunting her with crank phone calls and sinister letters in the mail. But Leigh refuses to play victim and becomes determined to uncover the nut's true identity. Writer/director John Carpenter ably builds plenty of tension, maintains a brisk pace throughout, and stages one doozy of a harrowing climax. Moreover, there's a pertinent and provocative central message about how advances in technology make it easier for someone to invade another person's privacy. Hutton positively shines in the lead; she gets fine support from David Birney as affable college professor Paul Winkless, Adrienne Barbeau as friendly lesbian coworker Sophie, Carpenter movie regular Charles Cyphers as unhelpful police detective Paul Hunt, Grainger Hines as smarmy technician Steve, and Len Lesser as a menacing burly man. Rober Hauser's sharp, polished cinematography and Harry Sukman's classy, rousing, shivery score are both up to par. Well worth a look.