Someone's Watching Me! (1978)

A woman is being watched in her apartment by a stranger, who also calls and torments her. A cat-and-mouse game begins.

Director:

John Carpenter

Writer:

John Carpenter

Stars:

Lauren Hutton, David Birney, Adrienne Barbeau

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lauren Hutton	...	Leigh Michaels
David Birney	...	Paul Winkless
Adrienne Barbeau	...	Sophie
Charles Cyphers	...	Gary Hunt
Grainger Hines	...	Steve
Len Lesser	...	Burly Man
John Mahon	...	Frimsin
James Murtaugh	...	Leone
J. Jay Saunders	...	Police Inspector
Michael Laurence	...	TV Announcer
George Skaff	...	Herbert Stiles
Robert Phalen	...	Wayne
Robert Snively	...	Groves
Jean Le Bouvier	...	Waitress
James McAlpine	...	Slick Man

Storyline

A woman is slowly stalked to the brink of madness by a man watching her from the opposite tower block. Her attempts to get the police to take her seriously leave her with no option but to track him down herself.

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Plot Keywords:

telephone terror | apartment building | stalker | watching tv | psychotronic film | 

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Taglines:

The Lost John Carpenter Suspense Classic - Never Before On Video Or DVD!

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Leigh is watching tv in her apartment there is a news report about the death of nurse Elizabeth Solley. Elizabeth Solley is the name of Jamie Lee Curtis's character in Carpenter's The Fog.

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Quotes

Paul Winkless: Listen, if it continues I think you should call the police.
Leigh Michaels: What do I say? Somebody's sending me presents and wants to take me on a six month vacation, make them stop?

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Connections

Referenced in Fear on Film: Inside 'The Fog' (1980)

User Reviews

Night Terror

From the get-go this is one scary film. The daytime skyline of L.A. dissolves to nighttime accompanied by spooky music. Then, inside some room, a man's hand turns on a tape recorder and dials a telephone number. He wheels around a telescope pointed toward the window of his female target, Leigh (Lauren Hutton). After a brief vocal exchange, the man tells her: "Come to the window; all those windows out there; and I'm behind one of them".

So begins "Someone's Watching Me", a suspenseful thriller about an attractive female TV broadcaster stalked by an unknown man. One of the scariest sequences has Leigh coming back to her high rise apartment and finding the front door unlocked. She calls the manager who tells her that although maintenance men were in her apartment earlier he personally locked it behind them. She sounds innocently skeptical. As the camera slowly pans around to the living room behind Leigh, a man suddenly and silently darts across the living room carpet ...

Suspense is heightened by the fact that Leigh lives alone, and by the fact that much of the plot takes place at night. There's an effective use of silence in a couple of sequences toward the end that further enhances suspense.

Despite the obvious suspense, the script has some problems, most notably the inanity of Leigh choosing to re-locate to a more secure residence that's exactly like the one wherein she was previously stalked ... a high rise apartment that looks out toward another high rise with lots of windows. Also, some of Leigh's specific actions and some dialogue are silly and unrealistic. Further, I was quite disappointed by the film's ending.

Film direction and cinematography are fine and contribute to the suspense. Casting is acceptable. Overall performances are average. I thought Adrienne Barbeau, as Leigh's friend Sophie, gave a particularly good performance.

If the viewer overlooks the script's defects and doesn't expect too much from the story's ending, this can be an absorbing film to watch. Females might not want to watch it at night while alone.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 November 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

High Rise

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1