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A STRANGER IS WATCHING
Rating: 
USA. 1982.
Director – Sean S. Cunningham, Screenplay – Earl Mac Rauch & Victor Miller, Based on the Novel by Mary Higgins Clark, Producer – Sidney Beckerman, Photography – Barry Abrams, Music – Lalo Schifrin, Special Effects – Connie Brink, Art Direction – Virginia Field. Production Company – MGM.
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew (Sharon Martin), Rip Torn (Artie Taggert), Shawn von Schreiber (Julie Peterson), James Naughton (Steve Peterson)
Plot: A delivery boy is about to be executed for the rape and murder of Brenda Peterson. The identification was made by Brenda’s 10 year old daughter Julie who witnessed the killing. But then Julie’s and her father’s girlfriend tv journalist Sharon Martin are abducted by Artie Taggert who takes them to his lair in the disused tunnels beneath Grand Central Station. Artie leaves a tape for Julie’s father, saying he wants $182,000 ransom. As Julie and Sharon try to escape, they discover Artie was really the one who killed Brenda.
Sean S. Cunningham had had a huge success with the B-budget sleeper Friday the 13th (1980). The next film he made was this kidnap thriller. It was not a great success, as with most of Cunningham’s films post-Friday films – The New Kids/Striking Back (1984), Deepstar Six (1989), the teen leer film Springbreak (1983). Indeed the greatest success Cunningham has had is with the House films, which he only produced. Why Cunningham did not consolidate the success of Friday into something greater is a mystery. It is almost as though, and as all his subsequent directorial efforts show, he seems incapable of stretching beyond obvious B-budget hackwork, even though the opportunities provided by Friday the 13th must have granted him the opportunity for much larger budgets.
A Stranger is Watching is probably Cunningham’s best film, the only one that shows him capable of something more. He does still trade in many of his customary cheap shocks – von Schreiber screaming in the shower because of cold water, cats jumping out at people and so on. But then it is not really a horror film. It has a borderline psycho, but it is really a kidnap drama and it was only the Cunningham name attached that caused it to be reviewed in the horror genre at the time. It is mostly routine. There is a reasonable degree of suspense during the scenes with Mulgrew and von Schreiber trying to escape up the dumb-waiter and so on. If Cunningham had concentrated the film on the psychology of escape and imprisonment rather than wasting it on Torn’s encounters with Chicano gangs and co-conspirators it would have been much better. The other worthwhile thing the film has going for it is Torn’s ruthless and mean-spirited performance.
The film is also notable as the film acting debut of Kate Mulgrew, later Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001).
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2012
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