cult film freak: JOHN CARPENTER'S TV-MOVIE THRILLER 'SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME!'

Title Sequence for Someone's Watching Me YEAR: 1978 Rating: ***

After John Carpenter hit surprise bombshell with the horror/slasher HALLOWEEN, a made-for-TV movie being the next step is a bit strange, but for the small screen it's not bad...

The tense, rather slowburn plot centers on a director played by Lauren Hutton who is, as the title implies, being watched by someone in the building across from her own...

Lauren Hutton in SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME

Some of the dialogue is silly and the characters aren't fleshed out (including future Carpenter scream queen and wife Adrienne Barbeau in Hutton's workplace), but the pace keeps flowing, the tension mounts well, and there's that neat Carpenter steady-cam throughout despite the lack of spooky-synth Carpenter score...

At times this feels like a theatrical thriller edited-for-television; other times it's like watching a TV movie that, with more work, could have made it to the big screen. All in all it's a Hitchcock homage, but looks more like a Brian DePalma-doing-Hitchock. Either way it's not too shabby for a small screen effort. Carpenter fans shouldn't be disappointed; just don't grade on a curve.