Director John Carpenter's early movies like Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween show how effective he can be when creating soundscapes to build the threat of personified forces of destruction. Into the ‘80s, Carpenter refined these skills, which makes it all the more startling to watch his NBC made-for-TV movie which has very little of his usual Carpenterisms. Someone’s Watching Me! was incredibly hard to find not too long ago. It was even considered the director’s lost film. Then, its accessibility changed for the better when it was released on Blu-ray in 2018. Someone's Watching Me! has obvious Hitchcockian influences, named for master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The film's urban setting also almost found its way into the slasher franchise Carpenter accidentally unleashed. Despite the TV movie format's limitations, John Carpenter made an effective thriller, anchored by two captivating actresses, one ending up as a recognizable face in the director's later projects.
‘Someone’s Watching Me!’ Takes Inspiration From Alfred Hitchcock
Leigh Michaels (Lauren Hutton) moves into Arkham Towers in downtown LA, relocating from New York City. She’s in need of a new start and a new job, both of which she gets fairly quickly. At Leigh’s job directing, she befriends Sophie (Adrienne Barbeau), and after meeting at a bar, Leigh gets romantically involved with Paul (David Birney). Just as soon as life seems to be smooth sailing, eerie phone calls from a male caller come in, invading Leigh’s workplace and her home. Finding support in Sophie and Paul, but hardly much with the police, Leigh grows frustrated enough to take it upon herself to find out who her stalker is — and where he is. Someone’s Watching Me! might sound like a riff on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and the comparisons shouldn’t be ignored, they end up as strengths in surprising audiences with the directions the story goes in.
Halloween pulls much influence from Hitchcock’s Psycho, the two finding terror in small towns, where a knife-happy killer attacks first Janet Leigh, then her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis. In Someone’s Watching Me! there is even greater inspiration from a Hitchcock classic. Whereas Psycho and Halloween call the horror genre their home, John Carpenter’s TV movie Someone's Watching Me! has a set-up reminiscent of Rear Window (1954) where voyeurism is crucial to the mystery thriller. James Stewart is Jeffries, stuck in his NYC apartment as he recovers from an injury, unable to resist the urge to peep at his neighbors. It isn’t long until Jeffries witnesses a strange series of events that make him believe there is a murderer at large. In Someone’s Watching Me!, Carpenter plays with changing up who the voyeur is depending on the scene, escalating the danger by doing so. There is a jump scare early on that will probably jolt anyone who watches for the first time thanks to the lack of any warning. This is still more of a thriller than a horror flick.
John Carpenter’s 'Someone's Watching Me!' Updates ‘Rear Window’
Leigh is a very different lead than Jeffries. To raise the stakes, she isn’t immobile like him, leading to her searching for the stalker outside the confines of her apartment. Having such an active main character is an update that allows for more suspense set pieces. When Hutton follows after who she believes is a suspect, she abruptly loses control of the situation. Down in her building’s laundry room, she can’t find the man she was just trailing. She then hears the sounds of footsteps, approaching, not retreating. Leigh needs to be quick, choosing to hide under a floor grate to avoid detection. This whole sequence grows more claustrophobic as it goes on, following Leigh’s dash from her apartment’s wide space, to the narrow hallways leading to the basement, before ending in the tight hiding spot Leigh crams herself into.
Leigh’s career is a plot choice that only adds to the voyeurism this movie is all about. She directs live TV and is very good at it. She carefully orders the right camera movements and positions, looking through a monitor for the image. The grand window in her apartment’s living room lets in a good amount of sunshine but is essentially another screen for viewing. Her stalker is watching from the building across, except this mysterious man doesn’t simply rely on sight alone. Instead of the movie opting for a massive plot twist late in the runtime, Carpenter allows the audience in on a secret only the antagonist knows (a favorite use of suspense from Hitchcock too). You’ll know the moment when the camera lowers, away from Leigh’s face, and to the nasty surprise waiting for her to catch on. Leigh’s apartment might have her name on the lease, and it might be filled and decorated with her personal belongings, but this place isn’t hers, it’s the stalker’s. For how much dominance her stalker seems to have and gloats on, Leigh doesn’t back down. Her living room window, with the curtains pulled away, opens her life to be watched, and it can just as well let her look back to find those leering eyes.
Leigh, and how Lauren Hutton plays her, helps to keep the story engaging when it isn’t focused on the thriller aspects. Leigh is not easily frazzled, she’s good under pressure even if she wishes she didn’t have to deal with the stress. She often talks to herself, to prepare for a job interview or to kill the empty noise that sits around her in her new place. Initially, she reacts to the odd occurrences as if it’s catcalling, mistaking the stalker’s mind games for what they are. The phone calls aren’t enough to provoke her. Gifts start showing up. James Stewart doesn’t get caught up in the psychological cat-and-mouse scenario as Lauren Hutton does. After Leigh realizes this is a more dangerous situation, she pushes back against her tormentor.
'Someone's Watching Me!' Is an Early Collab Between John Carpenter & Adrienne Barbeau
Among the slim cast, there’s Adrienne Barbeau as Sophie, a co-director in Leigh’s place of work. Barbeau, well-known at the time for starring in the sitcom Maude, has now become more famous for her darker roles; the actress would also get married to Carpenter and have a bigger role in The Fog (1980). But before that, she played a supporting role in Someone’s Watching Me!, one of the best parts of the TV movie. John Carpenter is now known for his collaborations with actors, from Sam Neill to Kurt Russell, and the performances he gets from actresses shouldn’t be ignored. While Jamie Lee Curtis might be the first to get name-dropped, Adrienne Barbeau deserves recognition too. Her voice has a gravitas all by itself, put to perfect use in The Fog. What makes Barbeau’s character surprising in Someone’s Watching Me! is how she’s written to be a lesbian which the movie doesn’t treat too terribly, considering the time period and the genre.
She comes out to Leigh during a casual conversation about ex-lovers, without it derailing their new friendship. The Hutton-Barbeau pairing ultimately is far more engaging than the male costar Hutton’s character is written to be in love with. In an interview for Shout! Factory's 2018 Blu-ray release, Barbeau has nothing but positive thoughts when looking back on this movie, giving a mention to Sophie’s sexuality. Fans continue to interact with her with an appreciation for playing the role — fans who felt recognition with Sophie’s quick mention that she has not an ounce of heterosexuality in her veins. The dynamic between Leigh and Sophie is safer to invest in, be it how they discuss their place in a male-dominated workplace, or how they exist in a movie where the men are unhelpful or a suspect in being the stalker. For Carpenter fans, Charles Cyphers appears, playing a cop who is more than happy to deal with Leigh’s stalker problem — and catches the wrong guy.
John Carpenter Wrote 'Someone's Watching Me!' as a Feature Film
Although that didn’t happen, he was just as happy to get it made as a TV movie. A fun fact relating to the placement of Someone’s Watching Me! on Carpenter’s cinematic resume, he worked on this and two weeks later, went on to direct Halloween. Notably, it has less of Carpenter’s favorite idea of a silent, unstoppable, like in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and what would take on a whole other life in many of his later movies. There was a moment when story ideas from Someone’s Watching! almost bled into a Michael Myers sequel Carpenter begrudgingly went to draft. According to Bloody Disgusting, a blurb in Fangoria “described Halloween II as being set years after the events of the original, with a much more cautious Laurie Strode now living in a high-rise apartment with incredibly tight security.”
Producer Debra Hill was even noted as saying there were plans for it to be a “3D” movie. This, of course, is not what happened with Halloween II (1981), taking place on the same night as the original. Beer and writer’s block were two issues that affected Carpenter as he tried to figure out a sequel to write that he really didn’t want to. Although not confirmed, it’s possible this stress forced him to think back and think of doing a hybrid between Someone’s Watching Me! and Halloween. It wouldn’t be the last time Michael Myers could have hunted prey in a city setting.
The massive book Taking Shape II by Dustin McNeil and Travis Mullins reveals a history of the Halloween sequels that never happened. One is the Halloween 4 draft by writing team Daniel Kenney and Marc Allyn Medina, which had an older Laurie working as an editor in the Chicago high-rise office of Real People Magazine, with a family of her own now, before having to deal with the return of the masked slasher. This Kenney/Medina draft was heavy in an MTV-style and while it didn’t get made, it still makes for a fascinating “what if?” to the franchise. Michael Myers has yet to invade a city to this day, Jason and Ghostface have since beaten him to it.
'Someone's Watching Me!' Is John Carpenter’s Lost-Then-Found Movie You Should Find
Someone’s Watching Me! makes a good case for why the slow-moving Haddonfield boogeyman could be a threat outside his favorite small town. Hutton’s high-rise is a trap. For all the space Haddonfield may have in sprawling neighborhoods, it is never enough to escape. The scene which finds Leigh having to go under a floor grate is one example, in a movie with many, where a city would be just as claustrophobic from a lurking monster. This TV movie doesn’t have many of Carpenter’s later trademarks. There is no minimalist music he made himself to push the anxiety as Leigh gets a close call. He worked with composer Harry Sukman (Salem’s Lot) for a more traditional thriller score (and he didn’t get to edit the footage).
What makes Someone’s Watching Me! essential viewing is in seeing how the director learned to work out camera movements and complete all the filming over ten days, an ideal experience he applied to Halloween’s tight schedule. The Steadicam gets used for certain shots, including one where Leigh storms into her apartment to locate a sharp letter opener that looks like it could do even more damage than a butcher knife. How the camera flows beside her, then gets close to catch her hand as she picks up her weapon, isn’t too different from the slow presence of the camera’s POV in the opening to his classic slasher. This once-lost film by the director and one very little talked about, even by Carpenter himself, shouldn’t be forgotten any longer.