SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

acidburn-10 Years ago I was a big fan of John Carpenter, I loved his early movies such as (Halloween, The Fog, Assault on Precent 13 & Escape from New York), but not a fan of his more recent stuff but I'm still a fan of his early stuff. Imagine my surprise when I learned about Someone's Watching Me, a made-for-television flick that Carpenter directed right before he began work on Halloween. I literally had no idea the film existed until I read about it on the internet."Someone's Watching Me" is quite interesting; there is nothing supernatural like what Carpenter is known for but rather a simple storyline about a woman named Leigh Michaels who moves to a new city and new apartment and starts getting stalked. She eventually discovers that she is being watched from the apartment opposite her and with no help from the police she decides to take matters into her hands.I have heard that this movie echo's Alfred Hitchcock films, and there are several parts that you can compare, but this is definitely a John Carpenter flick through and through. This movie is very well constructed and polished, but doesn't always keep me interested and that's where the made for TV aspect really kicks in and falls a bit flat in places, it's not a bad movie far from it and it does feature suspense.The performance from the lead actress Lauren Hutton felt a little flat and to be honest I didn't find her all that interesting despite the fact that this entire movie revolves around her, not the most memorable character in horror movies, but she did do an okay job. And another fact is that almost nothing happens in this movie until towards the end and I found myself dozing off at times.All in all not a bad effort from John Carpenter, but not brilliant and I'd say only recommended for fans of John Carpenter.

Joshua Warren This is often referred to as "the lost Carpenter film", and many of you have probably not even heard of this film. Well now that it have finally been released to DVD, I advice all of you that are either John Carpenter or thriller fans to go out and by or rent this immediately. This is a high quality thriller that is packed with Carpenter great ability to create chills and paranoia. This movie may be ahead of it's time as I've noticed these kinda movies got very popular during the 90's. If you like this you'll probably like movies as "Phonebooth" and such. This is definitely the best thriller of the 70's and has a noticeable Alfred Hitchcock feel to it.I must admit this is far from John Carpenters best movie, but it is far from bad. This was movie the movie he directed right before his biggest success film of all time "Halloween", and if I'm not wrong it was because of this film, that he was chosen specifically to direct it.I give this film a 9/10.

jseger9000 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.

Coventry "Someone's Watching Me" is practically always described as a "Hitchcockian" thriller. This is of course a quite superficial and even remotely hypocrite way to label a film. Whenever an acclaimed director revolves a thriller on themes that were largely introduced by Alfred Hitchcock, the critics are tempted to mildly review the film as a "Hitchcockian" thriller, yet when an unknown director does the same, his/her effort is likely to get categorized as a weak attempt to imitate the legendary filmmaker. John Carpenter had just scored big hits with "Halloween" and "Assault on Precinct 13", so consequently his TV-produced variation on "Rear Window" was bound to fall into the first category. By stating this, I certainly don't intend claiming "Someone's Watching Me" is a bad film, mind you, but it's definitely a bit overrated and inarguably routine. The basic plot and structure are just too simplistic and derivative and, since Carpenter still isn't on par with Alfred "the master of suspense" Hitchcock himself, he doesn't manage to turn this into a highly memorable film. The film benefices from a handful of genuinely suspenseful moments as well as a steady pacing, but specifically in order to maintain the pacing, the script makes a couple of implausible (on the verge of absurd, even) twists and turns. "Someone's Watching Me" introduces Leigh Michaels, a lady in her late twenties with a peculiar habit of making bad jokes and the even more irritating habit of continuously talking and singing to herself, who just migrated from New York to Los Angeles and moved into a fairly luxurious apartment block with a view all over the city. She accepts a great job, makes a few friends (Adrienne Barbeau as a lesbian) and everything goes well until some pervert spots her through a telescope from the building across the street. He must really fancy women with a giant gap between their front teeth, as Leigh unendingly receives strange phone calls, expensive gifts from a fictional company and unsettling remarks about her behavior and the places she visited. The poor girl slowly loses her sanity and, since the police can't interfere until something tragic happens, she and her newfound friends eventually start an investigation of their own. Carpenter's attempt to deliver a suspense-driven TV-thriller is admirable, but the material is too minimal to fill up nearly 100 minutes of running time and some of the invisible villain's methods are just too grotesque. Come on, which deranged stalker would be willing to spend a remarkable sum of money to buy his victim expensive gifts (from a fake company with its own letterhead!) or go through so much effort to falsely accuse another tenant? The eventual denouement and unmasking of the culprit is far too improbable as well. Also, and rather obvious since it concerns a TV-production, the film severely lacks action and bloodshed. If only Carpenter was able to invite the protagonist from his previous film, Michael Myers, to join the party! Imagine what would happen! Surely it would take Michael quite a while to reach the penthouse, but once he's unleashed the stalker would regret the day of his birth!