When A Stranger Calls (1979)

…

Rating 3½


Directed by Fred Walton

Written by Steve Feke and Fred Walton

Starring Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Tony Beckley, Colleen Dewhurst, Ron O’Neal and Rachel Roberts


When Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) receives threatening telephone calls while babysitting she calls the police, but they are slow to react, and the caller, Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley), is already in the house. By the time the police arrive on the scene, he has brutally murdered the two small children. Seven years later, Duncan escapes from the psychiatric hospital where he has been held, and John Clifford (Charles Durning), the original arresting officer, now an aging and disillusioned private detective, takes on the job of hunting him down.

The 2006 remake took the opening scenes and stretched them out beyond breaking point to create a less than convincing horror film, made even more pointless because Wes Craven had already paid homage to those opening scenes in his 1996 film ‘Scream’. The original is not a horror film; it is a low-key thriller, much of it filmed at night in semi-darkness, occupying the underbelly of an American urban landscape.

The story moves along at a much slower pace than is common now, very typical of 1970s American cinema. It has an almost melancholy feel, and the portrayal of the psychotic Curt Duncan is interesting, because it humanises him. Tony Beckley is very effective in this role, in what proved to be his last acting performance before his death at the age of 52. The ever-reliable Charles Durning is also worthy of note.

‘When A Stranger Calls’ is not a classic, but it is a very good film and it puts the remake to shame.



…

When A Stranger Calls (2006)

…

Rating 1½


Directed by Simon West

Written by Jake Wade Wall, based on the original 1979 screenplay written by Steve Feke and Fred Walton

Starring Camilla Belle, Katie Cassidy, Tessa Thompson, Brian Geraghty, Clark Gregg, Derek de Lint, Kate Jennings Grant, Arthur Young, Madeline Carroll, David Denman and Tommy Flanagan


Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) is grounded by her parents and is not allowed to drive or use her cell phone. On the evening her high school is holding a bonfire party for the students, she is required to baby-sit in a huge isolated hi-tech house she has not previously visited, driven there by her father. She soon begins to receive menacing crank calls.

‘When A Stranger Calls’ is a 2006 teen horror film, based on a 1979 film of the same name. That film inspired the opening sequence of ‘Scream’ (the scenes with Drew Barrymore) and the remake plays like a grotesquely over-stretched 90-minute variation of those scenes.

The film’s English director Simon West is best known as the director of ‘Con Air’ and ‘Laura Croft: Tomb Raider’. Camilla Belle received good reviews for her role in the 2005 film ‘The Ballad of Jack and Rose’. She had previously played Sandra Bullock’s character as a child in ‘Practical Magic’.

For most of the running time of the film Jill is in the house more or less on her own – the children are asleep in their room and the maid Rosa is a character we see just once and who adds nothing of any great purpose to the storyline whatsoever. Jill spends nearly all of the time walking slowly around the enormous dimly lit open plan house, either receiving telephone calls or attempting to make calls. That is about it.

The film drags badly because there is so little substance. It’s well made and Belle is okay in the lead role, but the role is flimsy and she struggles to really carry the film as she must do. In its favour, the film opens with a horrific killing that we do not actually see, but we are allowed enough clues to imagine the brutality of it. This works so much better than actually showing us the killing or the aftermath of the carnage.

The opening scene, run behind the credits, suggests we are entering a different film altogether to the one we eventually get. The bolted-on closing scene is risible and should have been left on the editing room floor.

‘When A Stranger Calls’ had a production budget of $15 million and grossed just under $70 million at the box office worldwide. It has a pitiful 9% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 85 collected reviews. Apparently, a sequel has been given the green light, with Hayden Panettiere taking over the lead role.



…