When A Stranger Calls

Review by Clint Morris

It’s more of a case of ‘you’re going in and out’, than it being off-the-hook, but never the less, Director Simon West’s (Con Air) attempt at replicating the frights from the indisputably bloodcurdling When a Stranger Calls(1979) is a venerable, and surprisingly classy, effort.

Not that that’s going to matter much, because like a phone call on a stormy night, purists are going to give it a bad reception anyway, right?

You see, remaking this is like remaking Halloween or Evil Dead – both, I’m sad to say, which are indeed in the works – no matter how much of a Zinger the belated redo is, you just can’t beat the original, and having been inundated with so many horror films in the years following - and ones that are a lot scarier than the original Stranger Calls - it almost seems like a pointless exercise anyway.

You remember that original don’t you? A young girl (Carol Kane) is babysitting a couple of kids, and starts receiving phone calls from a heavy-breathing nuisance. Swiftly, the calls take a more aggressive turn, especially when the creep on the other end asks whether she’s “checked the children?”.  Stranger Calls wasn’t the best thriller of it’s time, but it was definitely one of the most memorable – and the one that kicked off a succession of ‘babysitter terrorised by slaughterer’ movies.

Obviously the filmmakers didn’t catch the Scream (1996) boat – which pretty much killed the effectiveness of these types of movies, or so we thought, with its spot-on send-up of the genre – because here we are again.

The sequel pretty much follows the same storyline – but excises a couple of characters (the burnt-out copper from the original is nowhere to be seen here, unless of course, he’s supposed to be the nauseated veteran we see in the first few minutes of the film, investigating a connected murder) in exchange for a contemporised template. Now, thanks to such things are cordless phones, cell phones, GPS systems, and advanced home security, the screenwriters have a lot more technology to inject into proceedings. Bearing that in mind, maybe a remake wasn’t that bad of an idea?

Jill (spunky Camilla Belle, of The Ballad of Jack & Rose) is asked to baby-sit for a well-heeled couple that live well-off-the-beaten-track. Their house, situated in the backwoods on the bank of a cloudy swamp, is a fabulous-looking manor with all the accompaniments. Sure to be fun, right?

Wrong. An unsigned freak – sadly, we never learn much about him or his motives - starts phone calling Jill, at first just breathing into the phone but later menacingly taunting her, and it becomes pretty apparent that he’s not calling some 50 miles in town. He’s in fact, calling closer…a lot closer.

Stranger Calls is nothing stellar – it’s got plot holes (but significantly less than you’d expect from a film of its type), is as predictable as a kleptomaniac in a jewellery store, and some of the scares are plain laughable – but it’s still quite an effective young people’s thriller.

Jake Wade Wall’s script takes a bit too get going, but once it does, you’re totally immersed and near on the verge of drawing sweat. It reminded me a lot of one of Kevin Williamson’s (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend) earlier films, just a tad dafter, and without his unique set-ups. Still, being this year’s I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t a bad thing – kids will pay good money to have the hairs on the back of their necks stand up on end for an hour-and-a-half.

What also helps the film is the heroine, who for the most part, is the only character in the film. Young Belle gives a credible performance, the type of do-gooder lass you just can’t help but root for, and if she’s steered in the right direction might even be able to avoid the trappings of being the new Neve Campbell.

As much as it is choca-bloc with cream cheese, and passé as the script may seem at times, it’s quite a classy effort and a genuinely nail biting one of that. This is the film to see after Capote, Transamerica or North Country leaves you brain-dry.

3 out of 5

When A Stranger Calls
Australian release: 15th March, 2006.
Cast: Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Tessa Thompson, Brian Geraghty, Clark Gregg
Director: Simon West.
Website: Click here.