A STRANGER IS WATCHING

US, 1982, 92 minutes, Colour.
Kate Mulgrew, Rip Torn, James Naughton, Barbara Baxley, James Russo.
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham.

A Stranger is Watching is a kidnap-murder thriller directed by Sean S. Cunningham, who graduated from The Case of the Smiling Stiffs to box office success with Friday the 13th. - and a subsequent spate of youngsters and multiple-death thrillers. This film has better cast, is better written and has excellent credits. The film uses the New York subway for horror, dramatic effect. Based on a novel by Mary Higgins Clark. Good of its kind.

1. An entertaining kidnap-murder thriller?

2. Colour photography, New York, the use of the subways? Flashbacks? Hazy memories? Special effects? Musical score?

3. The conventions of the genre: the presentation of the original crime - and its effect on Julie? Her mistaking the identity of the killer? The traumatic effect on her? Her relationship with her father? The interviewer and her gradually being drawn into the family, into the kidnap plot? Distressed father? Detectives? Deranged killer? The complexity of his kidnap and ransom plan? The build-up to confrontation and heroics? Deaths? originally done? Successfully done?

4. The complexity of the plot? The staging of the death - and the subsequent follow-up for kidnapping purposes? Taggart's cruel mentality? The complicity of the helper? The focus on Julie, the effect of her mother's death, relationship with her father, relationship with Sharon? The kidnap? The heroics? The death of Taggart? Sufficient credibility for the purposes of this kind of thriller?

5. The film's focus on Julie - little girl, memory, the consequences for the court and the imprisonment of Ronald Thompson? The appeals and success of defending him from death sentence depending on her? Love for her father? Relationship with Sharon and eventual depending on her? The confrontation with Taggart? The help of Lally? A good performance from Shawn Von Schreiber - credible within the context of the thriller?

6. Sharon as heroine? Her work, investigation, the professional woman? The reporting of the story? Her standards in her work? Involvement with Steve Paterson, with Julie? Dangers? The kidnap? Torture? The imprisonment? Her devices for escape? The chase and the confrontation?

7. Taggart as villain - the original murder? His return? Menacing Julie? The kidnap? The complicity within the household? The plan for the money? The murdering of his partner? Rip Torn's performance as a psychotic killer? The chase in the subway - his death?

8. Steve Paterson - the distressed father, relationship with Julie, with Sharon, with the police? Investigations? Worry?

9. Ronald Thompson and his being the victim of circumstances? Delivering the goods? His place in Julie’s memory? Imprisonment? Suffering? Death penalty and appeal? People believing him or not? Support for him? Issues of capital punishment and the execution of innocent victim? His being saved at the end the atmosphere of split-second timing?

10. Lally as the old woman wandering the subway? Character sketch? Type? Help? Death?

11. The sketch of the police and their investigations? Legal processes?

12. The atmosphere of the ordinary American household? Contemporary atmosphere - news reporting, television, the police etc.? The contrast with the underworld of the subway and the way that it was used?

13. A violent thriller - the use of violence - exploitation or restrained? Appropriate for this kind of film?