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

For years I’d heard about this film but never saw it, it was known as the ‘lost Carpenter classic’

Before the days where you could find basically anything on the internet there was a time where a film could be ‘lost’. You knew it existed, maybe you’d even seen stills of it in a magazine, but if there was no physical version of it you simply couldn’t watch it.

This was one of those films for me until one day I got sent a YouTube link to the film, I couldn’t believe I was finally getting to see the film I’d heard so much about. The problem now was, would the film live upto the expectations I had after waiting for so long.

What we get is a master class in how to make a tesion packed film. It’s very well known that Alfred Hitchcock had a huge influence on Carpenter’s work and that is extremely evident here, especially with his cinematography and script which are just fantastic.

This made for television movie was done the same year Carpenter’s iconic “Halloween” movie was released and it showcases that early potential he had and it’s no surprise thaty he went on to become the iconic writer and director that we all know him as today.

“Someone’s Watching Me!” is still a thrilling film, even if it’s over 45 years old. If you’ve not had the chance to see it then I recommend you try to hunt it down.

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If you want to see the “Someone’s Watching Me!” trailer then just click on the video below:

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

For more than two decades, the movie was almost better known as the “lost Carpenter film” due to its scarce availability on home video. The movie actually got released on VHS, there has never been an official VHS release in America. Warner Bros. finally released it on DVD in 2007.

It was on the set of this TV movie that director John Carpenter met future wife Adrienne Barbeau.

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.

The script was originally written for cinema.

The character Leone is inspired by Sergio Leone, one of John Carpenter’s favorite directors.

One of the times when Leigh Michaels is talking to herself she mentions she was born in Carthage, New York which is the birthplace of director John Carpenter.

At 57:43, when Leigh turns to look out of her window, the “Hitchcock zoom” is used. The “vertigo effect” also called the “Hitchcock zoom,” was first used in the film, “Vertigo”. This camera technique is created by simultaneously zooming in while dollying out or vice-versa.

Adrienne Barbeau and Charles Cyphers were in The Fog together, another Carpenter film that followed this and Halloween which Cyphers also appeared in as did Robert Phalen. Cyphers also returned for Halloween II which featured a police deputy named Gary Hunt like his character here.

The TV station where Leigh works is KJHC. JHC are John Carpenter’s initials.

Leigh was Charles Cyphers’ characters’ first name in Halloween and in Halloween II his deputy is named Gary Hunt. In Halloween there’s also a Paul, whose voice is director John Carpenter’s, and a killer Michael Myers. In The Fog, Adrienne Barbeque plays Stevie Wayne and Jamie Lee Curtis Elizabeth Solley. These are all characters or mentioned in this movie.