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"When a Stranger Calls" - hang up
Fred Walton's "When a Stranger Calls" has become something of a cult favorite among genre fans; the line "Have you checked the children?" is classic. Interestingly, it was originally planned as the third part in a planned trilogy, the first two parts being Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" and John Carpenter's "Halloween." It spawned its own sequel in 1993 as a TV-movie reuniting the cast and crew and titled "When a Stranger Calls Back," and it was remade in 2006. Truthfully, though, "When a Stranger Calls" is recommended viewing only for horror fans. <
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>This is a film done wrong from start to finish. There are a few points in which it sets itself up for greatness, and it even delivers during the terrifying opening sequence, but for the most part it's a mess. The story: babysitter Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) keeps receiving phone calls from a stranger who asks only, "Have you checked the children?" She calls the police, and the next time he calls, they track the call. <
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>It's coming from inside the house. <
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>Cut to several years later: the stranger (Tony Beckley, who died a year after the film's release) escapes from an insane asylum and takes to the city streets, where he is pursued by the cop (Charles Durning) who arrested him years earlier. This whole section is pure nonsense. Dull and pointless, it sucks all the tension out of the film, and focuses so much on the killer himself that he loses any of the scariness he held in the beginning. In the last twenty minutes, Jill Johnson, now a mother of her own children, is out to dinner with her husband when she receives a call: "Have you checked the children?" This sets up a climax that manages to regain some eerieness before the film goes out with a whimper. <
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>In the hands of an auteur, "When a Stranger Calls" could be a good or at least decent movie. In the hands of Fred Walton, it's a lifeless mass of potential and pointlessness. Dana Kaproff's score has its moments, but one cue so closely resembles the music which plays in the ads for THX sound that it's hilarious. The cast delivers robotic performances, with the exception of Carol Kane. She's no Jamie Lee Curtis, but she at least appears to be trying for greatness, even if she does walk through her scenes in a state of distanced dreaminess. <
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>"When a Stranger Calls" has been a late-night favorite for decades, and that's understandable. It is quite frightening at times. However, if you're not a genuine horror fan, steer clear. There's none of the craftsmanship that made "Halloween" and "Black Christmas" so good - in fact, besides a ghastly opening sequence and one delicious line, there's not much of anything. Heed my advice: "When a Stranger Calls," just put the phone back on the hook and move on.

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The BEST scary movie
There are only two movies in which I have ejected myself out of my seat in terror while screaming -they are Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn and the original When A Stranger Calls. Just thinking about it creeps me out and I only saw it once... 28 years ago! I remember telling a friend about the babysitting scene while taking a stroll through some trees and freaking us both out! The neat part about this thriller is that there wasn't a speck of blood, no gore--simply the conceptual implication. It is a fantastic psychological thriller through and through. Carol Kane and Charles Durning were perfectly cast for their roles. <
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Still Crazy After All These Years
When a Stranger Calls, made one year after John Carpenter's Halloween, continues the slasher, babysitter storyline; however this movie is different in that the killer and potential victim are both given character development. This is much more satisfying than having a killer who just kills people without any kind of explanation given to the audience why he's crazy. No, we're not made aware of the killer's motivation into madness, but at least we're allowed to know him. <
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>When a Stranger Calls was originally created to be a sequel to the seventies movie Black Christmas; but that idea was scrapped. Some people still consider ...Stranger...as a sequel, but aren't there certain rules about what constitutes a sequel? If the killer, victim and setting is all different from the original film, can it still be a sequel? I don't believe so. <
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>Some hate the middle part of the movie; and accuse it of being boring. I personally feel that the middle part had perfect continuity with the beginning and ending and was just as suspenseful. A killer stalks and gets caught, where else can the plot go? <
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>Bottom Line: a very good and suspenseful movie with no sex, not much bad language, and a limited amount of blood: that might sound boring to the average horror fan, but it's really not. <
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