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When a Stranger Calls
Far away from the site of a gruesome murder, a teenager named Jill Johnson arrives at a luxurious home for a baby-sitting job. With the children fast asleep, she settles in for what she expects to be an ordinary evening. Soon, the ringing of a phone and the frightening words of a sadistic caller turn Jill's routine experience into a night of terror.
Release : | 2006 |
Rating : | 5.1 |
Studio : | Davis Entertainment, Screen Gems, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Camilla Belle Katie Cassidy Tommy Flanagan Brian Geraghty Clark Gregg |
Genre : | Horror Mystery |
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Reviews
Wow! Such a good movie.
Simply A Masterpiece
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
During a babysitting gig, a high-school student is harassed by an increasingly threatening prank caller. To be honest i don't get why so many people hate this film except the fact that it's a remake but it's better than half of the awful Texas Chainshaw remakes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the god awful The Mummy remake. The acting was fine, the scares even tho not amazing they were pretty good and Camilla Bella tries her best and for the most part i think she did a great job and besides Simon West has made way worse garbage than this believe me. (8/10)
I've seen this movie quite a few times, and I especially love watching it around Halloween. But the only reason I came here to write this review is because I just watched it again today and IMDb got rid of discussion boards so I can't say it there. Sooo, why has no one mentioned how far fetched it is that the "stranger" managed to get Tiffany all the way up to the 3rd floor bathroom without Jill even noticing? Lol
I just saw this film the other night for the second time. The first time I watched was over 5 years ago. I remember it not being very good, so I wanted to see and confirm if this was the case. It was.*****Spoiler Alert******The film starts off with the baby sitter arriving at the rich peoples houses (I can't be bothered mentioning names) and it goes downhill from there. We do not even see the children until near the end, and the killer; he is super-human, until he gets to the babysitter. Anyway most people have already discussed the story and acting, so I will just get onto what annoyed me most.The house uses a secure alarm system that requires a code for entry. This was activated while the Dr was at home, so how did the killer get inside to kill the Rosa the maid??? And how did he do it so cleanly without being noticed?Then we have her friend, Tiffany, enter the house and surprise her, via an open garage door that connects to the house WTF??? I am sure the alarm system is advanced enough to tell us if one of the main entrances is open.Worst still, when Tiffany leaves the house and gets into her car it suddenly won't start WTF??? She's got a Toyota, the same model I had, and I never had issues starting it. Anyway, there is a branch blocking the entrance, so she has to get out of her car. Then she gets hunted by the killer who moves at super speed, so she never sees it coming. After this the film gets even stupider, if that was even possible.So our babysitter sees the guest house light come on, and decides to leave the relative safety of the main house, go through the creepy forest which has a magical wind blowing through it, to the said house. WTF??? Why would she even want to do this? She was a scared teenager a few seconds ago, and now she's going Rambo??? Needless to say she returns to the house, and the killer is there. Now how did he go from the guest house to the main house completely undetected and enter without the alarm code? More importantly the house is absolutely massive. How did he know all the rooms and locations so well? Did he have psychic powers or study the mansion plans prior to this attack? Obviously that would have been impossible, as there was no way he could be anticipating a babysitter would be there alone. Anyway, I won't waste any more time here. I give it a 2 star only for production value. The rest is simply not worth it, and I will not be watching it a third time. Avoid if you can.
****SPOILERS**** Grounded for telling a fib, about her boyfriend seeing another girl in school, has pretty Jill Johnson, Camilla Belle, forced by her outrage father Ben, Clark Gregg, to end up babysitting at the Mandriks' Will & Allison, Arthur Young & Madeline Carroll, ultra fancy smanchy, with all the most modern conveniences, house for the evening looking after their two young children. At first everything is all right and groovy for Jill until she gets these strange phone calls followed up by heavy breathing and what sounds like someone blowing his nose that starts to unnerve her. It's not long after that Jill realizes that whoever is calling is at the same time watching her every move from outside the house. The problem for Jill is how to keep the heavy breathing phone caller from breaking in before the police come to rescue her and the Mandrakis children!We've seen it all before in the 1979 movie of the same title but this time around-in 2006- the action and tension just doesn't keep together like it did in the previous and far better version. Jill for her part is so ridicules in her actions in trying to prevent the stranger in doing her and the kids in she by leaving the door open and taking a walk outside in what looks like a major hurricane in fact makes it that much more easier for him to do it. The stranger is ironically played by two people one on the screen and actor Lance Henriksen, no stranger in playing movie psychos, as his voice which has to be a first, having two people play one character at the same time, in movie history.****SPOILERS**** Thowards the end the policeman whom Jill got in contact by phone Officer Burroughs, David Denman, finally was able to trace down the stranger by her keeping him on the phone long enough to put a trace on. And sure enough, he must have gotten that from watching the previous 1979 version of the movie, the crank or threatening caller is right in the same house that she and the kids are in! By the book or number horror movie where practically every move is telegraphed well in advance eliminating any tension or surprises in it. Jill in the end survives all the carnage but she's now a mental case in what she went through and seems descant to be institutionalized for the rest of her life.P.S I don't know if it was the real deal in making the film or I saw a defective version of it on TV but all the scenes in it seemed to have been filmed as if it was done backwards, as if shot through the reflection of a mirror, making whenever there was any text to be read, like the opening and closing credits, by watching it seem as if you were dyslectic!