User reviews

The script is way above average for a movie that is part exploitation, and part crime drama. My only complaint is that at times it seems a bit stretched, as in a few too many chases, and the acting varies from excellent,( Rip Torn), to very average,( Kate Mulgrew). The dark underground is used to great advantage, and there is genuine tension in several scenes. "A Stranger is Watching" is a must see for Rip Torn fans, as he is at his sleaziest. Obviously the "slasher" crowd has missed the whole point ,that this is a clever "suspenser", and the low IMDb rating reflects their misguided interpretation. Recommended for those who are looking for something different from the usual "slice and dice". - MERK

Seeking out "A Stranger is Watching" was somewhat of a new experience for me… I'm a big movie fanatic and I hardly read any books, but in this case I was familiar with the work of novelist Mary Higgins Clark before I ever saw a movie that was based on her writings. Clark certainly isn't the greatest suspense fiction writer in the world, as her books are often clichéd and predictable, but at least everything that I read from her was easy to digest, unpretentious and occasionally very tense (like for example the novels "I heard that song before" and "Two girls in Blue"). I haven't read the novel on which "A Stranger is Watching" is based, but it sure had an interesting synopsis that fits right into her area of expertise. The film is directed by Sean S. Cunningham, whose name is irreversibly linked to the slasher pioneer "Friday the 13th". Although often also quite sick and very exploitative, "A Stranger is Watching" is totally different and incomparable to "Friday the 13th", since the story centers on just a handful of people in a devastating situation, whereas "Friday the 13th" is simply about horny teenagers getting slaughtered. 9-year-old Julie Peterson traumatically witnesses how her mother fiercely gets murdered in her own house. Two years later, when an innocent person is about to be sentenced for the crime, the real killer returns to kidnap both little Julie as well as her father's new girlfriend Sharon. The psychopath, Artie Taggart, imprisons the two ladies in a hideout place underneath New York's central station and demands a 180k$ ransom. Julie's father and the police attempt to collect the money, while Sharon – as well as a couple of observing New York homeless people – battles her repulsive kidnapper. "A Stranger is Watching" is mostly tedious and not at all suspenseful, mainly because the identity and lame motives of the kidnapper are immediately revealed. Some sequences are quite grotesque, like for example when Taggart calmly walks across the crowded train station carrying a large bag on his shoulder with his sedated victims in it, but most of the time the film is overly talkative and dull. The surprise twists in the plot come across as forced and implausible and – as a viewer – you feel very little affection or compassion for the two damsels in distress. The killing sequences are vile and nasty, though, and the underrated Rip Torn depicts an extremely sadist & menacing villain, so "A Stranger is Watching" definitely holds some interest for 80's horror fanatics.

Thirteen years before sitting in a Star Fleet captain's chair and going up against such alien homicidal monstrosities as the Borg, the Kazon, the Hirogen and Species 8472, Kate Mulgrew did battle with a homicidal monster of a much more mundane nature, in 1982's "A Stranger Is Watching." Based on Mary Higgins Clark's best seller of 1977 (which, to be honest, I've never read), the film shows us what happens when 11-year-old Julie Peterson (well played by Shawn von Schreiber)--who had seen her mother brutally raped and killed two years earlier--is kidnapped along with the woman (Mulgrew) who is dating her widower dad. The thuggish lout (Rip Torn) hauls the pair to the underground labyrinth beneath Grand Central Station, a hellish world unto itself, where he caches them and schemes to acquire his ransom. The film is a fairly taut thriller, into which director Sean S. Cunningham manages to generate more suspense than he had two years earlier in the overrated "Friday the 13th." A background score by the great Lalo Schifrin adds immeasurably to the tension on screen, and all four principals--including James Naughton as Julie's understandably desperate dad--turn in fine performances. Unfortunately, the story is a tad too simplistic for this viewer's taste. We never learn anything about the nutjob Artie Taggart, other than the fact that he wants to raise horses in Arizona; his background, and why he's chosen this particular moment to kidnap Julie, remain mysteries. If only the film's screenplay were as multilayered as Grand Central Station itself seems to be! Still, despite the unfleshed-out nature of the picture's most interesting character, the film does manage to keep the viewer riveted. Kate, post-"Ryan's Hope" here but still hardly a household name, is always wonderful to watch, and looks quite beautiful in this early screen role. And while Artie Taggart may not be as relentless as one of the Borg, he still manages to give the old girl a pretty tough time....

This film is sleazy and exploitive in the extreme. That's not much of a surprise, since it was directed by the man responsible for the (inept) first "Friday the 13th" film. What I DID find mildly surprising was the director's ability to shoot some reasonably suspenseful scenes in the middle of all the sleaze, proving that, when he doesn't overuse gore, he is competent enough. For a low-budget exploitation film, this isn't too bad.

I remember when I watched this movie in the late 80's in my country on TV, many years after it got released, I was around 6 or 7, and I remembered some scenes that totally freaked me out. After that, my mother didn't let me watch the rest, and then I could not find it anywhere because I didn't remember the name. I finally found it a couple of days ago, and I stared remembering the scenes that frighten me when I was a kid. Right now that we have movies like A Serbian Movie, Hostel, The Human Centipede, and on and on, where everything is super explicit, and hardly ever any survivors, same as perfect makeup effects, so watching a vintage movie where there is no blood at all, where you see always a way to escape (I tend to do that in all the movies where someone is trapped), perhaps you won't find it really thrilling, but if you consider the time period where it was made, with the effects that were available at that time, and the time when the action happens, 1980, with no cellphones, no internet, no DNA tests, and many other details, it is scary, and still believable.

A Stranger Is Watching is a half way decent horror/thriller movie. directed by Sean Cunningham director of the first Friday The 13th movie. when the psycho guy pops up its a little creepy, and the suspense is good to, but at times the movie is kind of slow, Sean Cunningham shows he has some skills, but i feel he did way better in Friday The 13th, in that the directing was real good, A Stranger Is Watching is an average film from an Average director, i give it 5/10

This has the feel of a made-for-TV movie except it has enough profanity to give it an "R" rating. Kate Mulgrew has the acting skill of a wombat, to be kind. Rip Torn can act but he is saddled with a cliché-ridden script that is full of ridiculous turns and coincidences. This movie is totally predictable and tedious in the extreme. It's one yawn after another; the only reason to watch is in the hope that maybe something will actually happen that could be called suspense. But it never does. At least the little girl's cat is cute. I felt sorry for Rip Torn and the little girl, who probably thought she would have a career after this. Rip did, fortunately for him, as he was able to rise above being in this dreck. One final note -- the title is totally misleading. There is very little watching as the movie is about a kidnapping not stalking in the sense one normally thinks of it. Everyone says the book is better but if it is even half as contrived as this film, I have no desire to read it.

I had recently get this on inter-loan from the library.

I I'll have to say, out of all the Mary Higgins Clark movie adaptations which my mom and I enjoy, this one feels the most serious and feels R-rated.

Since this is directed by guy who made the original Friday the 13th, this film has a little bite to it.

Rip Torn plays the mysterious kidnapper who adducts an 11 year old girl played by cute Shawn Von Schreiber and a reporter played by sexy Kate Mulgrew.

A large some of money must be met by the kidnapper or he will kill both Kate and the girl.

I love the dark claustrophobic atmosphere and the thickness of the high tension.

Rip Torn is excellent as the sleazy manic mad man, I had never seen him be a villain in anything before. I had only seen him in very little, but enjoyed him in the Men in Black movies.

Kate Mulgrew is another actress I had seen in very little, the only movie we own with her is Throw Momma from the Train, and I gained a crush on her since I was little. I do remember seeing her in the tv series Star Trek: Voyager, when I was little and loved her in that as well.

These movies in the Mary Higgins Clark films are a little corny but I really like them, guilty pleasures if you will, this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat from stat to finish.

I don't want to say more because I'll give away the twists but you will be entertained.

I give it a 6/10. Give it a look and enjoy.

Fairly mediocre, common-or-garden crime-thriller. Nothing new or really original. Performances are OK, but you feel they are just going through the motions.

As a Connoisseur of all things Kate Mulgrew, I'm somewhat biased in this one. She portrays Sharon Martin with ease, although horror has never been her fortay. She has a flare for the dramatic which is played out well in this film, aiding in the sympathizing of her character's plight. As for an actual review, this movie rates in effect up there with the Shining. You know when the bend in the corner is, and every point is virtually expected... it's a true "Here's Johnny" moment. However, if you enjoy the smaller budget horror films of the early 80s this one is well worth it. I LOVED it. Again, a biased opinion, but if you like Kate Mulgrew and Rip Torn, you're set.

Based off of the Mary Higgins Clark novel, A Stranger is Watching is gritty early 80's crime thriller about a man who kidnaps a child and a woman and keeps them captive in the tunnels of New York City's subway lines.

The movie starts with an eight year girl witnessing her mother being murdered and raped by a man. Flash forward three years later and we see that a person (Ronnie Thompson) who young Julie claimed was the killer is being sentenced to death for the crime. Our female heroine is Sharon Martin who is dating Julie's father and covering the story of the accused man as a lead TV reporter. Viewers are led to believe that Ronnie is the killer, however when a different strange man starts hanging around and stalking Julie at her school we learn that she made a mistake with in identifying the murderer she thought she saw that terrible night.

While home alone one evening, the same man who killed Julie's mother breaks in and kidnaps her and Sharon. He takes both of them to some sort of makeshift underground bunker in the bellows and depths of Grand Central Station and threatens that If he doesn't receive a large sum of money, he'll kill them. It's up to Julie and Sharon to somehow escape captivity and also find their way out of a maze known as NYC's underground subway system.

I enjoyed this movie a bit more than I thought I would. The Higgins Clark story is a good one, and is presented well on film. I felt bad for young Julie having to go through such trauma not once but twice, and by the same man. There were some very well done cat and mouse chase scenes throughout the tunnels and tracks. Director Sean Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame did good with those parts. Also enjoyable are the filming locations of the dark subway tunnels.

Kate Mulgrew is incredible as the female lead Sharon Martin. The character is a strong woman who is the middle of trying to get her and Julie out alive while also trying to build a relationship with her as a step parent. Rip Torn as the main villain does a fine job as well, but that character isn't given much of anything in respect to dialogue. Just a lot of grumbling and yelling. The character might be the weakest part of the movie, and I do like Rip Torn.

Overall, this is a watchable crime/thriller that has fallen into obscurity over the years. It completely bombed at the box office but I can't see why. Good acting, a well told story, and a little twist as well. It can get a little tiresome towards the end because you just want the two ladies to escape already, but all worth it with the satisfying ending we get. Check it out!

6/10

Director Sean S. Cunningham's A STRANGER IS WATCHING is about depraved psychopath, Artie Taggart (Rip Torn), who rapes and murders a woman in front of her young daughter. A couple of years later, Taggart returns to the scene of the crime, kidnaps the daughter, as well as her dad's new girlfriend, Sharon (Kate Mulgrew). Whisked away to Taggart's secret lair beneath Grand Central Station, Sharon must protect the girl, while trying to find a way out of their dire situation.

Cunningham proves that he's not just a director of slasher films, building up suspense rather than relying only on jumps and jolts. There are deaths, some semi-brutal, but not repetitive. The underground location is perfectly claustrophobic and grim. For his part, Rip Torn is quite menacing, in an unhinged, could-kill-you-at-any-moment sort of way. Ms. Mulgrew plays Sharon as resourceful and resilient. Recommended for fans of crime drama-thrillers...

The mystery was intriguing and suspenseful and the acting was well done. The plot was very mature. The child recalls her mother being raped and murdered and is forced to watch her father's girlfriend being touched (against her will) in a sexual manner. Lots of swearing. Several GD's, Sh--, and Bi---. The "F" word was used throughout (whispered, mumbled, and openly stated). Child endangerment throughout. Child trauma throughout. Not appropriate for young viewers.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of A Stranger Is Watching. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 1.25 Direction - 1.25 Pace - 1.25 Acting - 1.25 Enjoyment - 1.25

TOTAL - 6.25

Based on a Mary Higgins Clark novel, A Stranger Is Watching is an insidious dark thriller. The one thing that stayed with me was how cold-hearted and viciously cruel the killer was. Granted, that's par for the course in this style of story. Though, what makes Artie Taggart stand out is the gritty realism of his character. Artie wouldn't stand out in a crowd as a man to worry about. In fact, most of the time it's Artie who is marked as a target by other criminals. Usually to their detriment. Even if he loses the fight he wears his scars and bloodstains with an apathetic pride. It takes the writers, the director, and the actor to construct Artie into the human monster that he is. And they all do it superbly.

The one good thing Stranger has going for it, and what caught my attention, was the director, Sean Cunningham. He of Friday 13th fame. This guy knows how to use his locations to the max. The murder at the beginning takes place in a large sitting room by a roaring open fire. Though, when he shows Julie, the daughter, witnessing her mother's abuse and murder, you can't help but feel trapped and claustrophobic. He shoots Julie behind the bannister of the stairs. It looks as though she's imprisoned with nowhere to run. And, of course, her fear has done just that. Then when we get down under Central Station, he shows the audience a darker and dirtier side to the city. Discarded rubbish is left to rot in the enclosed tunnels, where the lost, homeless, and rats roam. It's an ideal place for a villain's lair. Who in their right mind would venture down there?

As for the performances, as I said before, Artie Taggart is the foremost character. And boy, was I surprised by this because he is played by Rip Torn. He is one actor who never made it onto my radar because he's never been so good. If I had watched stranger when I started watching movies seriously, I would have hunted out Rip Torn movies. Only to be let down. Rip Torn in this film is like Ted Levine as Gumb in Silence Of The Lambs.

However, the rest of the cast is a tad hit and miss. The worst is James Naughton as the kidnapped girls' father. He is so laid back it's unforgivable. His wife was murdered, and then the last of his family was abducted, surely, he would be out of his mind and pulling his hair out. But this dad is so cool, you can call him SMEG.

Nevertheless, A Stranger Is Watching is an above-average and enjoyable dark-thriller. If you like your bad guys dark and deadly then this film is for you.

Feel free to check out my Killer Thriller Chillers lists to see where I have ranked A Stranger Is Watching.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Film director Sean S. Cunningham moved on from his great success with "Friday the 13th" to this more mainstream Hollywood thriller. It's nothing special, but it's not without its moments and pluses. It's a pretty sordid story, to be sure (adapted from a novel by Mary Higgins Clark), and some viewers may find it repellent at times. Others should have some fun with it, although it's never all that credible.

Kate Mulgrew stars as Sharon Martin, a glamorous, big shot news reporter romantically involved with Steve Peterson (James Naughton), who's also in the news business. Two years previous, Steves' wife Nina (Joanne Dorian) had been raped and murdered in front of their horrified daughter Julie (Shawn von Schreiber). At the time, Julie had pointed the finger of guilt at a delivery guy, Ronald Thompson (James Russo), but the REAL culprit, Artie Taggart (Rip Torn), returns to extend his crime by kidnapping the two females and holding them for ransom in the vast and dingy areas beneath Grand Central Station.

Cunningham brought along some of his F13 collaborators for this show, like casting directors Julie Hughes & Barry Moss, production designer Virginia Field, and cinematographer Barry Abrams. They do their best when capturing the sinister, overwhelming atmosphere of the underground settings. Suspense is minimal, but there is some violence here and there without much in the way of gore (for which, I'm sure, "Friday the 13th" detractors were grateful). One interesting moment has us manipulated into rooting for Rip when a gang of punks attack him in a public washroom, despite the fact that he's a VERY bad bad guy. The effective music score is courtesy of reliable veteran Lalo Schifrin.

Rip is typically amusing in the villain role, and Mulgrew and young von Schreiber are appealing enough to maintain rooting interest. Much of the supporting cast is rather nondescript, but Naughton is good as the father, as is Barbara Baxley as a homeless woman. William Hickey and Vincent Spano can be seen in small parts.

Screenplay credited to Earl Mac Rauch and "Friday the 13th" scribe Victor Miller.

Six out of 10.

"A Stranger is Watching" from 1982, is a gritty story and manages to be a cut above the usual film versions of Mary Higgins Clark's book.

Normally these have been produced by Grosso-Jacobsen, and the films are made in Canada and use Psycho-type screechy music. They have one B or C-list American star, and the rest are Canadian actors.

This film, made earlier than many of the others, stars Rip Torn and a young Kate Mulgrew in her "Ryan's Hope" days, wearing more dead animals than I've ever seen. It also features James Naughton and my old acting teacher, Stephen Strimpell, and is filmed in New York.

The story concerns the aftermath of the horrid rape and murder of a woman while her 8 year old daughter, Julie, watched helplessly from the stairs.

It's three years later, and that man is going to be sentenced to death. However, the now 11-year-old girl and a reporter, Sharon (Mulgrew), who is also her father's girlfriend, are kidnapped. The kidnapper (Torn) holds the dad (Naughton) up for $180,000, the money put in trust for his daughter from his wife's estate.

The kidnapper has great familiarity with the bowels of the city, where the subway runs, and that's where he hides his victims. Can they escape? Or can someone find them?

There are tense and suspenseful parts of this film, but it moves slowly. As to being a cut above, one might ask why it's only getting a 6, which is what I usually give Mary Higgins Clark's films.

Well, it's only getting a 6 because this is a violent and sleazy story. There is no character development. I'm sure the book is better.

Cunningham's next film after the big success of "Friday the 13th" is this very different thriller with some horror strokes (not of the same kind as the Jason movies), shot in fascinating real locations underneath New York and with good acting, excellent direction and a very gritty vibe that I can appreciate.

Like that character that Peter Finch played in Network, when I saw this movie I was mad as hell. First of all I think Mary Higgins Clark is one of our greatest living writers, I wrote to Ms. Clark several years ago and she was kind enough to reply. I love her books and A Stranger Is Watching was my all time favorite. The thing about this remarkable woman is that she is so good at creating lovable, courageous heroines that you can look up to. I think of Kate Demoio in The Cradle Will Fall or Pat Traymore in Stillwatch, but in my humble viewpoint, Sharon Martin in ASIW is her best heroine. I remember reading her book when I was in high school and I just fell in love with Sharon. In her book it is a six year old boy Neil Peterson who is kidnapped with her, not an 11 year old girl as they show in this film. One of the things about a thriller where people are in danger is that you have to care about them to feel the fright or suspense. The people who make these cheap slasher films create cookie cutter characters that you don't care about. Mary Higgins Clark is one of the few who did it right. When she wrote ASIW she created two of the most lovable characters you could possibly imagine. I LOVED Sharon and Neil! I was horrified at what Arthur Taggart did to them, gagging them, tieing them up and leaving them in a room with a ticking bomb! I remember there was a scene in the book where he fondled and kissed Sharon that just made me ill. WHAT WERE THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS STUPID MOVIE THINKING! Watching this film after reading her wonderful book is like watching someone throw a bucket of sewage over a lovely rose. They made Sharon so unlikeable I could not believe it. As I previously said, they just loosely followed her book. They should have stuck to it line by line and page by page. They had an opportunity to create one of the best thrillers of all time and they failed miserably. If I were the producer, I would have just had Mary Higgins Clark do the screenplay. Also, Sean S. Cunningham could not have been a worse choice to direct this. He is the one who directed Friday The 13th! Once again WHAT WERE THEY THINKING. This movie was downright painful to watch and an insult to Mary Higgins Clark. I think they should try to remake it and this time stick to her book.

(*** out of *****) Two years after directing the first "Friday the 13th" movie, Cunningham came back with this more serious (but only slightly less exploitative) thriller based on the novel by Mary Higgins Clark. "The Larry Sanders Show"'s Rip Torn (with that name, he was bound to play at least one role like this) plays a murderous psychopath who kidnaps a young girl(Shawn von Schreiber) and a TV news reporter (Kate Mulgrew, from "Star Trek: Voyager") three years after raping and killing the girl's mother. He keeps them in a smallroom deep in the subterranean bowels beneath Grand Central Station. There are several suspenseful attempted-escape and chase scenes throughout the last half of the movie before it ends in typical, bloody slasher fashion. James Naughton (from "The Paper Chase" and the "Planet of the Apes" television series) plays the girl's father and Mulgrew's boyfriend, and Barbara Baxley and James Russo also appear. Old, whiney character actor William Hickey pops up briefly as an ill-fated bum. There's kind of a weak twist towards the end of the movie, and, with the high body count, Cunningham was apparently still getting 'Friday the 13th ' out of his system, but, otherwise, this is pretty good.

HIGHLIGHT: In an unexpected turn of events, Torn is attacked in a public restroom by a gang of thugs and beaten up. Even though he's the bad guy (and a nasty one at that), for a brief moment, you're tricked into thinking, `C'mon, Rip, kick their asses!'

Like watching any movie after reading the book, I felt expectedly disappointed. The plot was altered in many ways from the novel, which I deem to be much better than this mediocre adaptation of yet another Clark masterpiece. All of the movies based on Clark's books have been disappointing, because no movie can capture the intricacy and suspense designed by Clark, one of America's top mystery/suspense writers. I'm 16 years old and have never idolized an author's talent more than Clarks, and it is disappointing to see her novel made into a movie of this quality. Thoroughly disappointing.