As Edwige, the Revenging Manta, Albert Simmons, and I drove away from the bloody scene at the marina. It seems that Albert was the hero of the day after all. Albert had only pretended to betray us so he could go sabotage the mass driver. The Revenging Manta was in on it, his taking a fall all part of the plan. Oh, and it turned out Albert Simmons wasn’t his actual name nor was he an accountant. In fact he wasn’t the Revenging Manta’s actual brother, but more of blood brother from the days in the Special Forces. Those were before the days he settled down and became a haberdasher. They dropped Edwige and I off at the Museum of Schlock. The gang had abandoned the building. It was mine again.

— To be continued. 

Tonight’s movie is 1978’s Someone’s Watching Me! from director John Carpenter. Yeah, I bet you never heard of this movie because I sure didn’t. Maybe John Carpenter didn’t? Turns out it’s a made-for-TV movie starring Lauren Hutton. They used to put horror pictures on network television back in the 70s. Audiences could be treated to the likes of Bad Ronald and Devil Dog Hound of Hell. One was about a teenage creeper who lived inside the walls of a nice suburban house. The other was like The Omen if it had been about a dog.

Someone’s Watching Me! revolves around a television director named Leigh Michaels (Lauren Hutton) who has recently moved to Los Angeles for a new job directing cooking shows reminiscent of The Frugal Gourmet. Leigh has to fend off the creepy guys hitting on her, but what’s worse is that she appears to have a stalker. Her stalker keeps gazing at her through an apartment complex across the street. He also sends her gifts and calls her to let her know when a new one has arrived. The first gift is a telescope that she promptly assembles. When she’s out to dinner with her friend Sophie (Adrienne Barbeau), a mysterious man buys her a bottle of wine, but when she looks for him, he’s nowhere to be found. 

Leigh begins seeing a philosophy professor named Paul, but is distracted on her dates due to her stalker. She can’t really go to the police because the stalker hasn’t attacked her or even threatened her. Still, she manages to get the police involved anyhow. When the stalker calls again and tells her to look through her telescope. She looks through it to see a middle aged man looking at her on the other end. This allows the police to arrest him for harassment. The middle-aged man protests his innocence, but they find some dirty pictures in his apartment and they drive him out of town. He said he was only stargazing, but no one believed him. 

Guess what? Turns out it was all a frame up and Leigh’s stalker keeps calling her. And the police don’t believe they arrested the wrong guy. It’s up to Leigh and Sophie to investigate matters on their own which leads to Sophie being killed while Leigh investigates the true stalker’s apartment. Of course, Sophie’s body is nowhere to be found and she supposedly boarded a plane to visit friends in Texas. With nowhere to turn, will Leigh confront her stalker and triumph or will she be yet another victim? Word to the wise. Don’t be expecting a John Carpenter score in this one. The score is by Harry Sukman. He also scored Salem’s Lot so there’s some horror cred for you. 

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.