Lauren
Hutton, David Birney, Adrienne Barbeau
This John Carpenter entry into the Movie of the Week
genepool is an almost perfect combination of hot and trashy elements:
a heroine (Lauren Hutton) who works in television news
(she's damn near an Anchorwoman in Peril!), a
Telephone Stalker, a lesbian (Adrienne Barbeau,
looking more feminine than ever, oddly enough), surveillance equipment,
a useless male lead (Birney, who would soon enough prove
just as useless to then-wife Meredith Baxter) and Los
Angeles.
Hutton
stars as Leigh Micheals, a 28-year old (AHEM!) television news director
who has moved to LA from New York to start over -- from what, we're not
really sure, but that's okay, because soon enough a wacko starts watching
her every move and sending her odd gifts to her luxury high-rise apartment.
Before you can say Eyes
of a Stranger, Leigh is peeping at the residents in the building
across from hers and slowly unraveling, much to the dismay of her new
boyfriend (Birney, doing his best Burt Convy impression)
and Barbeau (quite likeable as a gay co-worker). Although most of the
movie seems like a one-woman off-Broadway show (Hutton is alone on-screen
talking to herself for the better part of an hour, by my estimation),
Hutton does very well in the lead and keeps the audience's sympathies
from wandering across the way to the creepy peeper. Extra points for having
a killer wearing the same exact outfit as Michael Meyers (Halloween came
out the same year) and meeting the same fate (what's with Carpenter and
windows?).
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