Someone's Watching Me! [Blu-ray]

Someone's Watching Me is sort of the forgotten movie of John Carpenter's career. Someone's Watching Me aired back on November 29th of 1978, which was almost a month after Carpenter's career took off with the horror classic Halloween.Originally John Carpenter wrote the movie as theatrical film, but Warner Brothers decided to make it a TV movie. In my opinion I think that was the right move. Even though this movie aired after Halloween it was actually filmed prior.I have to admit I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, but I don't think it would have worked as well as a theatrical film. You can clearly though see flashes of the brilliance Carpenter would show through out his career. Despite his reputation as a filmmaker who uses violence, Carpenter aims more for suspense and tension. This is a TV movie so the violence will obviously be lacking, which in some ways I think is a plus. Carpenter had to create a certain amount of tension and suspense and rely on that to make up for the lack of violence.John Carpenter has stated many times his love of Alfred Hitchcock and here he pays homage to the master of suspense with a movie clearly inspired by Rear Window. The screenplay by John Carpenter is well-written though there are some cheesy moments in the script. The structure of the script I don't think really works well as a theatrical film. Had it been a feature I'm sure there would have been changes made though.As I stated Someone's Watching Me is one of the forgotten movies in John Carpenter's career; while watching this flick you can see the potential John Carpenter had and in my opinion very much lived up to. Like I brought up earlier despite coming out after Halloween, this was shot prior to it and Carpenter really grew as a filmmaker in that short period of time. While not every single moment of the film works great, Carpenter was learning his craft and does a wonderful job.Despite being a TV movie Carpenter makes up for everything and does a solid job at creating suspense and tension through out. One of my favorite things about the movie is the phone calls. While they can be a bit creepy at times they start off as more annoying than anything. The caller isn't really saying anything that could get him in much trouble and he's actually sending gifts, which prompts Lauren Hutton's character to say something along the lines of what do I tell the police he's sending me gifts?There are a couple of creepy moments in the phone calls, but it's not really about that. It's more on the fact this guy knows her every move and that is why it gets creepy. The 2nd half of the movie really picks up with the suspense and delivers on that area more than a lot of theatrical movies. One of the very best scenes is when Lauren Hutton's character is in the callers' house and Adrienne Barbeau is in Hutton's house. I don't wanna spoil the scene, but it was a classic John Carpenter moment.The cast delivers mostly solid performances with Lauren Hutton in the lead. Adrienne Barbeau and Charles Cyphers have supporting roles and both would work with Carpenter a couple of times.Overall Someone's Watching Me is a solid suspense/thriller early in John Carpenter's career and the potential was shown and he lived up to that. Don't expect much violence keep in mind this is a TV movie so there is only so far Carpenter can go, but like I said he makes up for that is suspense and tension.Someone's Watching Me may not be one of the best movies Carpenter has ever made, but it's a very solid one and can stand proud in his body of work. Due to the fact this movie for the longest time was not available on VHS or DVD it's rarely seen. Hopefully now with the DVD release from Warner Brothers more Carpenter fans will seek out this forgotten classic.Little bit of trivia, this movie is the first time John Carpenter and Adrienne Barbeau worked together and this is the movie in, which they first met and would later get married.

Early John Carpenter made-for-TV movie that didn’t feel like it was made for TV. Nice slow burn of suspense, similar to Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Must watch for any Carpenter or Hitchcock fan.

**Mild spoilers**I have been a huge fan of EARLY John Carpenter ever since I was a kid. From the absolute awesomeness of Halloween, the grungy thrills of Assault on Precinct 13, the intense paranoia and pessimism of The Thing to the sheer junk heaven of Big Trouble in Little China, his early films are sheer cinema bliss. So when I recently saw that Someone's Watching Me, a TV movie he made right before Halloween, had been finally released on DVD a couple of years ago, I raced out to get it. The film stars Lauren Hutton as a young woman who moves to Los Angeles and finds a job at a local TV station. She moves into a high-end, high-rise apartment building that faces another high-rise. Soon after moving in she is stalked by someone in the other apartment building, although she is initially unaware that anything is amiss. Alright, I admit that this story outline makes this sound like a lame direct-to-DVD potboiler, but the fun in the film comes from its less predictable, even bizarre elements. First off, Hutton's character is really unlike any other main character I've seen; a real goofball, she happily chatters away to herself walking down the halls of her apartment building and makes jokes that other characters don't get or that cause them to squirm. The strange way in which she is stalked, which involves a series of gifts sent by a fictional travel agency asking her to guess the destination of her prize trip so that she can win it, also adds to its unpredictability. I also adore the scene where Hutton, sitting by herself in her car, is approached by a man who leans in and says "It's a hell of a life, isn't it?" then stumbles away, never to be seen again. Sadly the plausibility starts to take a steep dive in the final scenes as the inevitable confrontation is nothing you haven't seen a million times in many other movies. Still, I found the movie highly entertaining (enough that I watched it a second time the next night, something I never do).

Sadly, the disc I received had so many skips I had to return it. So this review is of the movie itself.Little seen gem first aired on broadcast back in the 70's, sometimes known as "John Carpenter's Someone's Watching Me!" This stars a winning Lauren Hutton as a TV broadcaster who moves into a twin-tower complex in downtown Los Angeles (Arkham Towers to be exact, which should have given pause; would you buy in Bedlam Estates?) to start a new life. She starts receiving little packages from a company promising her a trip- eventually the packages become more and more threatening. Unlike other heroines of the day (or for that matter today) Leigh Michaels is no shrinking violet. For better or worse, if the police won't help her, then she is darned well going to help herself.I'm not going to say another thing since I don't want to spoil it, but Hutton, who is really good in a well-done part, is ably assisted by Adrienne Barbeau as one of TV's first well-rounded, positive portrayal of a lesbian, and David Birney as Hutton's boyfriend. I don't know that I can recommend this edition since the discs I got skipped, but the movie I can, with gusto.

This is the one John Carpenter film I've never seen before and I'm a huge fan of his work. It was interesting to know this was a tv movie he shot right before he worked on his soon to be classic of the horror genre Halloween and you can some of the techniques he used here he would incorporate into the latter film. Lauren Hutton stars as a woman who moves from New York to L.A. to start her new career as a tv director for a cooking show who also moves into a spacious high rise apartment that she loves but it seems some maniac has been watching her since her arrival and has been making creepy phone calls and leaving gifts and notes at her door which begins to unnerve her. She goes to the police for help but they offer little for her unless this man attacks her. With the aide of her new boyfriend (David Birney) and Co-worker and new friend (Andrienne Barbeau) they start their own investigation to unravel this stranger's identity. In the capable hands of Carpenter this is a well made tv movie ranks up their other great tv movies like Spielberg's Duel or The Night Stalker. The story is suspenseful and compelling with good performances from its principle and supporting cast members. Carpenter has certainly paid homage to greats like Albert Hitchcock, Dario Argento's giallos and Bob Clark's Black Christmas which was an obvious forerunner for Halloween. I highly recommend this film to fans of Carpenter and well crafted thrillers.

買ったはいいけど、まだ観てない💧だから何とも言えないです。ハロウィン🎃🔪前夜、という事で気になって購入しただけです。国内盤出ればなぁ、と思う(出ないか…)😅。

Someone's Watching Me! is a fine slowburn stalker movie with solid performances and direction from John Carpenter. Barbeau and Hutton have a nice friendship and both come off as very likeable. It builds some nice tension as it heads towards its unsatisfying conclusion as I expected something better, especially from Carpenter. The movie is suprisingly ahead of its time with an openly gay character and it doesn't rub it in your face and like most, if not all, of Carpenters movies has a very good score. Its worth the watch for hardcore John Carpenter fans but I think the casual movie goer would find it pretty boring.

I purchased this because I've always been a big fan of John Carpenter's work, and buying this movie seemed like the only way I'd be able to see it, with the death of the video store and all.If I had to describe the film in a single word, it would be "reasonable". For a 70s TV movie it is reasonably well-made, reasonably well-acted, reasonably-tense. It contains a few pleasant surprises, such as the protagonist's chemistry with her friends and coworkers, and a great deal that feels more or less derivative of its obvious Hitchcock inspiration. If you're a fan of Carpenter's work or the filmmaking inspired by Hitchcock, give it a look.The package itself I am lukewarm about. The transfer is, like the film, reasonable, although the audio can sound tinny or washed out in places. Nonetheless, it's a much higher quality transfer for a made-for-television film from the 1970s.Special features, however, are very lacking. John Carpenter is known for his very entertaining and informative commentary tracks, which are some of the best a film buff could ever ask for. For whatever reason, Warner Brothers opted not to have an audio commentary for this DVD, and I imagine it was a fiscal decision to keep the cost of the disc down. That seems a bit odd, though, as the DVD does contain a short interview with the man himself called "John Carpenter: Director Rising" -- essentially Carpenter monologuing about his sudden rise to fame in the late seventies and what led him to create and work on this film. A little about the experience. The information was nothing particularly new for a fan of Carpenter, but it was nonetheless interesting to hear about from his perspective.Still, a commentary track in addition to this extra would have made the product much more well-rounded.

Je ne peux pas donner un avis c’est pour un cadeau de Noël