When A Stranger Calls

A re-make from the 1979 horror film, When A Stranger Calls is the story of a young babysitter in high school that is terrorized one night by a psychotic stranger as he communicates with her over the phone. In the large house, she feels somewhat protected from the spooks of the outside world. But she is terrified to be notified by the police that the phone calls are in fact coming from inside the house.

There isn't too much to this plot, in my opinion, and that makes it quite dull. However, there are quite a few scares and I believe this movie was well directed, but that still doesn't quite make up for the poor plot. This movie definitely wasn't one of the scariest that I have seen, but it did have an interesting concept. Do I think that it needed to be remade? No, and most critics agree with me.

Most critics, including myself, were a little ticked that there were hardly any changes made in the 2006 version of this movie. One of the major changes was that the phone was a mobile phone in this movie, and the character and pre-storyline were modified a bit. Other than that it was too similar to the 1979 version. Where's the fun in that?

There are always campfire stories and myths that revolve around strangers terrorizing babysitters or people home alone, and this movie did a great job of capturing that fear. However I do believe that in this day's standard of a horror movie they would have found a way to give it some twists and turns and scenes to send chills up your spine. I believe in theory, it was a great idea to remake this movie. However the plot fell short and there were a few missed opportunities.

According to critics, actress Camilla Belle, although looks like she'd play the part perfectly, really disappointed the audience in her attempt to fill 1979 actress Carol Kane's shoes. It was hard to believe her.

Don't get me wrong, I still liked this movie. But definitely no fave of mine. If you want to watch it for yourself, click on one of the links below for free videos online. And take my advice, be careful the next time you're home alone!

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