Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    HORRORSCREAMS VIDEOVAULT – SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT HORROR
    • Home
    • Film Reviews
      • Films Beginning With Numbers or Symbols
      • A – C
      • D – F
      • G – I
      • J – L
      • M – O
      • P – R
      • S – U
      • V – X
      • Y – Z
    • Book Reviews
    • Franchise Corner
    • Competitions
    • Horror Screams Podcast
    • Contact Us
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    HORRORSCREAMS VIDEOVAULT – SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT HORROR

    Film Review: SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! (1978)

    Peter 'Witchfinder' HopkinsBy Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins21st July 2019Updated:21st July 2019No Comments2 Mins Read

    SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! **** USA 1978 Dir: John Carpenter. 97 mins

    Shot in under ten days – and two weeks before Carpenter began filming HALLOWEEN – this exceptional TV movie provided the filmmaker with an early showcase for the kind of framing, Panaglide camerawork and suspense / scare tactics he would perfect with the slasher milestone. From the very beginning, he toys with point of view, cannily hiding the antagonist until the finale while implicating almost every other male character by using them for fake scares or narrative red herrings.
    This also has Carpenter’s first great heroine: Lauren Hutton is terrific as a live TV director battling against male scepticism and lechery in the workplace – the first guy she meets in her new L.A. job relentlessly hits on her. She is resilient, tough, sarcastic yet credibly terrified when victimised by a persistent stalker after moving into a pricey, hi-tech apartment building she refers to as “the top drawer of a glass box”. Like other Carpenter heroines, she talks to herself and is smart and funny about relationships, initiating a romance with the one non-sleaze she meets (David Birney) and befriending lesbian co-worker Adrienne Barbeau in a positive portrayal of a gay character for 70’s U.S. TV. The camera glides around Hutton’s apartment, capturing hidden microphones and background threats and using the surveillance equipment of the time to update the core set-up of earlier thrillers like REAR WINDOW. The emergent slasher sub-genre’s use of the telephone as an instrument of terror is prominent throughout, and it captures the alienating nature of modern city life via imposing multi-storey car parks, unhelpful cops and oppressive views of nothing but yet more tower blocks. The intense final battle feels like a dry run for HALLOWEEN’s climax, as the seemingly omnipotent, almost supernaturally efficient stalker is revealed as a nondescript balding maintenance man who, like Michael Myers, plummets to his death. Only this time, the heroine doesn’t need male help (Birney is never around when she needs him) and the killer doesn’t get up. This first-class thriller predated an endless series of voyeuristic 21st century found footage stalker movies, and also features a law enforcement role for Carpenter regular Charles Cyphers, upgraded to Sheriff in HALLOWEEN.

    Review by Steven West



    Facebook0Like0Share0Tweet0Pin0
    1970s Horror Adrienne Barbeau John Carpenter Someone's Watching Me! Thriller TV Movie

    Related Posts

    Film Review: CLOWNFACE (2019)

    19th June 202202 Mins Read
    Read More

    Film Review: LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

    17th June 202202 Mins Read
    Read More

    Film Review: THE CREEPING FLESH (1973)

    16th June 202204 Mins Read
    Read More

    Film Review: DADDY’S GIRL (2018)

    9th June 202203 Mins Read
    Read More

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    Search The Website
    Recent Posts
    • Michael Joy announced as producer on new horror film, Camp Pleasant Lake starring Felissa Rose
    • Limited Edition Mediabook release coming this July for Joe Begos’s blood-soaked hallucinatory trip film BLISS
    • Striking and Hallucinatory Sci-fi ULTRASOUND out now on Digital Download
    • Indiegogo campaign for 80’s aerobics thriller, MURDERCISE, is live!
    • 3 DEMONS – Premiering On Demand, Disc & Digital TUESDAY July 5
    Archives
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.