John Carpenter’s Forgotten Slasher: The Underrated Follow-Up To Halloween

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As a horror fan, I’ve been revisiting some of John Carpenter’s early work, and it’s amazing how much he packed into the ’70s and ’80s. Everyone remembers Halloween, the low-budget thriller that really launched his career, but I stumbled upon Someone’s Watching Me! recently – released just a month after Halloween! It’s a bit of a forgotten gem, honestly. Looking at his filmography, it’s incredible to think of all the classics he gave us, like The Thing and even something as fun as Big Trouble in Little China. But it all started with that incredibly effective, simple fright of Halloween.

Most people working on this 1978 horror film considered it a low-budget, exploitative movie, but John Carpenter’s skilled direction ended up defining the slasher genre. Despite its success, Carpenter wasn’t interested in continuing the Halloween series—though he did help produce the first two sequels—and wanted to explore different types of films.

John Carpenter became known for directing a variety of films, including memorable ghost stories like The Fog, science fiction movies such as Escape from New York and The Thing, and even comedies like Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Although he didn’t direct any sequels to Halloween, he did make one last slasher film: Someone’s Watching Me! in 1978.

John Carpenter Followed Halloween With The Wildly Underrated Someone’s Watching Me!

John Carpenter wrote a lot of screenplays in the 1970s, both to earn money and to try and get opportunities to direct. One of these was High Rise, a suspenseful thriller about a woman who is stalked by someone watching her from a building across the way.

Although no one wanted to turn it into a film, NBC asked John Carpenter to create a TV movie instead. He renamed it Someone’s Watching Me!, quickly cast Lauren Hutton and Adrienne Barbeau, and filmed the whole thing in just 10 days. This project also marked Carpenter’s first time working with a union crew, as all his previous films had been independently produced.

As a big Carpenter fan, I always find Someone’s Watching Me! fascinating because it’s what he did right before Halloween really launched his career. What’s cool is he didn’t have much say in how it was edited – it was a TV movie, and he was working with a tight schedule. But he’s actually really proud of it, which he’s said himself in a featurette about his early work, John Carpenter: Director Rising. It’s neat to see a glimpse of his style before he became a horror icon.

It’s a bit strange that Someone’s Watching Me! first aired on NBC just a month after Halloween. While the movie got a good initial response, it was quickly overshadowed by John Carpenter’s earlier work and largely forgotten after its first broadcast.

Someone’s Watching Me! Became A Halloween Prototype

In his biography, John Carpenter: Director Rising, Carpenter explains that he used the film Someone’s Watching Me! as a way to prepare for Halloween. He figured out how to manage his time effectively on set and learned how to work with a union film crew during the process.

Perhaps most notably, Carpenter carried over many of the filmmaking methods he pioneered in his NBC movie to his work on Halloween. This includes using the Panaglide camera to create smooth tracking shots of characters. You can also see a clear connection in how both Someone’s Watching Me! and Halloween create a sense of suspense.

These stories often have similar elements, such as scary phone calls or the main characters being secretly followed. The endings are also alike – they usually involve a final, desperate showdown between the survivor and their attacker inside a dark house.

One major difference between Halloween and Someone’s Watching Me! is the level of violence. Someone’s Watching Me!, being a TV movie on NBC, avoids strong language, graphic blood, or sexual content, and features very few deaths. While Halloween isn’t overly gory itself, it definitely feels more intense and is rated accordingly.

Someone’s Watching Me! Was Hard To See For Decades

Even dedicated fans of John Carpenter consider Someone’s Watching Me! a hard find. It was never released on VHS in the United States and didn’t come out on DVD until 2007 – nearly 30 years after it was first made. Carpenter rarely talked about the film, and it’s often overlooked when discussing his career.

Because Someone’s Watching Me! was a TV movie slasher, it wasn’t expected to be great. It became relatively unknown for a while, and while the limitations of being made for television do hold it back, it’s still a genuinely suspenseful film.

Carpenter skillfully builds suspense within a story primarily confined to a single apartment. He’s well-supported by Hutton and Barbeau, who deliver strong performances. Notably, Barbeau’s character, Sophie, is a lesbian – a groundbreaking portrayal for a 1970s television series.

While “Someone’s Watching Me!” isn’t as strong as “Halloween,” that’s true of many horror films. It’s not as well-known as some of John Carpenter’s other work, but it’s become more accessible recently. Any fan of the director should definitely check it out.

It’s crazy how quickly John Carpenter became a big deal after Halloween, so I always found it strange that Someone’s Watching Me! just seemed to disappear. It’s a really solid slasher film – you can definitely see his style all over it, even though it doesn’t have his usual electronic music. Plus, it features a fantastic female lead! That’s why, even after almost 50 years, it’s still a great watch, in my opinion.

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2025-10-25 15:41