Someone’s Watching
Me! (1978), dir. John Carpenter, Warner Brothers
Made for TV movies generally get a bad rap. Of course, many
of them are terrible or overwrought, but every once in a while a diamond is
found in the sand. Is John Carpenter’s first TV movie a diamond or sand? Read
on to find out after these messages.
Leigh Michaels (Lauran Hutton) has traded one big city for
another. Moving from New York to take a job in television in LA, Leigh seems to
be settling in rather nicely. Alone in her high rise apartment, Leigh has a
great view of the city. What she is unaware of, though, is that someone else
has a great view of her. For spoiler’s sake, let’s call him the Creep. The
Creep easily finds outs where Leigh works and lives and begins sending her gifts.
Leigh is not bothered by the flowers and trinkets, but the fact that someone
she doesn’t know knows where she lives bothers her. The police are less than sympathetic;
with the Inspector (J. Jay Saunders) more or less refusing to do anything as no
law has technically been broken
Then the phone calls start coming, and Leigh has gone from
bothered to freaked. The Creep seems to working off a script and he is not
happy that Leigh is not following. The police, again, refuse to do anything.
Judging from clues and some sound reasoning, Leigh manages to figure out where
the Creep lives. Enlisting her best friend Sophie (Adrienne Barbeau) to stay in
her apartment while she snoops, Leigh manages to break into the Creep’s place.
Sadly for her, and tragically for Sophie, the Creep isn’t
there. He’s in Leigh’s apartment and he is not happy. Sophie learns this and a
harsh reminder in gravity. Can Leigh finally get the police to do anything?
As a film, this is rather effective given the broadcasting
standards of the day. Several elements have not aged well. Leigh and Sophie use
walkie-talkies as one thing, but the police’s actions (or lack thereof) had me
slapping my forehead roughly five minutes. The show has finally been released
onto DVD so fans can finally see the lost Carpenter film.
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