DJLinus

"When a Stranger Calls" came on Cinemax yesterday and I watched it. It was the first time that I'd seen it in years. The movie creeped me out as a kid, but not so much nowadays.

I found it interesting that the music that is accompanied with the THX logo is originally in this movie.

"Have you checked the children?"

conscience

Good first and last half.

Middle = boring as hell.

Sex Fiend

"When a Stranger Calls" is one of the best horror flicks of the 80's in my opinion (although I think it was actually produced and released in 1979). The first and last sections of the movie formed the original short film by Fred Walton from which the feature film was developed.

Didn't find the middle section boring at all - it was actually a bit of a unique approach (at the time) to show the "real" life of the killer, and flesh him out into a three-dimensional character. That makes it one of the more unique slasher movies ever produced.

Plus the stuff in the middle sets up one of the great creepy lines near the end of the film - "You can't see meeee..."

Great flick !

matome

The sequel's first half was pretyt damn scary as well.

DJLinus

I pretty much agree with you there. I don't think the middle was that boring, but it was slow.

Sometimes being insane for insane's sake is okay, but I prefer to know the motivation of my homicidal maniacs. Why did he choose to kill the Doctor's kids/torment the babysitter? I don't think the movie ever really touched on that. It just seemed kind of random.

Norm de Plume

I'm in complete agreement with you. The midsection, although somewhat awkwardly "tacked on" to the original short film called The Sitter, is not boring at all. Beckley's character is developed to quite an extent, given this is a horror film, and Colleen Dewhurst, one of my favourite actresses, is thoroughly believable as the surly, weary old broad, whose vestiges of humanity show through at the sight of the pathetic creature trying to court her. A great suspense sequence has Beckley materializing in the darkness of Dewhurst's hall closet and sneaking up on her.
Dana Kaproff's music score is one of the best of all film scores. The actors who briefly play the parents (Rutanya Alda and some Joe I couldn't bother looking up...) at the beginning are fairly awful, as is the nebbish who plays Carol Kane's husband seven years later.
The first thirty minutes of the sequel are, I think, even scarier than the opening of the original. The rest of the film is much weaker than the entirety of the first one.
Jill Shoelen isn't great as the babysitter, but she doesn't detract much from the incredible build-up of tension. Whenever I want to show people the epitome of a scary scene, I crank up my laserdisc of the sequel on my 120" w/surround sound, and by the climax of the opening a few people need a change of underwear.

The director of both, Fred Walton, has an innate understanding of crafting crescendos of terror. He also directed the excellent Trapped (1989) with Kathleen Quinlan, and a good suspenser with Gregory Hines called Dead Air (1994), both made for cable.

smirnoff

I have never seen "when a stranger calls" but I did see the sequel, "when a stranger calls back" and really found it creepy.

Cornholio

i havent seen either of them. it looks like it might be worth a rental.

TheDude

The original '79 When a Stranger Calls is one of the best horror thrillers I've seen. Extremely well done; I remember hearing about the movie long before I saw it...

The '93 made-for-TV sequel When A Stranger Calls Back was also a great film; in fact, I may have liked it a little better than the original...Unfortunately it's extremely underrated these days..

Both films deserve a double Blu-ray release at some point....

The 2006 re-make of WASC was well-done, but I still prefer the original...