Someone's Watching Me!

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Year:	1978
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	John Carpenter
Genre:	Stalker suspense
Starring:	Lauren Hutton, David Birney, Adrienne Barbeau
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078295/
Tagline:	No tagline
Favourite line:	"Being raped by dwarves…."

Oft overlooked TV movie from horror meister Carpenter, released the same year as the vaunted Halloween.

The plot:
A young woman, who works as a director of live TV, moves into a swanky new apartment in L.A. Shortly after her arrival, she begins receiving telephone calls, nothing too sinister at first, but soon ratcheting into something altogether more menacing, as a mysterious man turns her life into a living hell.

As a TV movie, it is perhaps inevitable that this is pretty tame when compared with Carpenter's fully fledged cinematic offerings, but this movie is not without it's merits.
Carpenter's trademark directorial flourishes are present and correct: lengthy tracking shots to convey menace; excellent use of POV shots; imaginative use of lighting to add atmosphere.
But there are issues here, too.
Firstly, the lead character is really hard to like. She's so damned perky and optimistic, whistling and singing her way through her day, even talking to herself in a really upbeat, joyful way. Honestly, it turns the stomach.
Secondly, she seems a bit dim-witted. What is meant to come across as obstinate and determined seems simply foolish as, long after the stalker has made his presence known AND made it abundantly clear that he is watching her every move, still she wanders around her apartment with lights ablaze, curtains open. At one point she even has sex right there in the window.
Made me cross.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the incidental music is not written by Carpenter, so we don't really have that sinister final element that really lifts most of his work, instead the score is bog standard TV movie fodder, all blazing brass and honking horns, which is quite headache inducing.
Still, as a TV movie, this weren't 'alf bad, and there were certainly signs of the greatness to come, and Carpenter's cine-literacy was evident with clear nods to Hitchcock and Argento. It could even be claimed that this would go on to inspire Craven's Scream, due to the utilisation of the telephone as the primary instrument of terror.
And heck, the villain even wore Michael Myers' trademark dark blue boiler suit!
What more could you ask?