Customer Reviews

When a Stranger Calls

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"When A Stranger Calls" came out the year after the original "Halloween", and although it is not as widely acclaimed or known, it's just as scary, if not scarier, in a much more subtle manner.

The film starts off with Jill (Carol Kane), a young babysitter minding two small children for the evening, the children having already been put to bed for the night by the parents before they leave. She begins to receive anonymous, frightening phone calls with the caller ominously asking, "Have you checked the children?" and "Why haven't you checked the children?" then hanging up. Scared, she calls the police, who at first tell her to calm down, then instruct her to try to keep the caller on the line if he calls again, so the call can be traced. When she obliges and they trace the call, the real terror starts. I remember when I first saw this film, and my reaction to this revelation was unparalleled by any film I had seen at that time.

I am trying not to give away too much - if you haven't seen this film, be careful of other online reviews; I came across several that were real spoilers, and without any forewarning.

The first part of "When A Stranger Calls" is very fast-paced, then the middle part takes the audience seven years ahead; Jill is now a married mother. The film slows and becomes more of a psychological study; the criminal from the beginning sequence has escaped from the asylum. Along his wanderings he comes across Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst), a tough barfly he fixates upon. John Clifford (Charles Durning), who was the police detective investigating the original case, re-enters the scenario to try to track down the escaped madman, Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley).

This part of the movie is slower but much more interesting, in my opinion, and shows how scary a film can be without any real gore factor. Tony Beckley (in his last role) is very convincing as a murderous madman; his careful and understated portrayal make the character Curt Duncan even more terrifying. Colleen Dewhurst's performance as Tracy helps this part of the film move very well (she was always an extremely good actress) and she makes Tracy's toughness, vulnerability, and smarts very believable. Charles Durning as Detective Clifford is a typical part for him, and he handles it well, with his usual street-savvy tough-guy exterior aplomb.

The direction by Fred Walton, and the subtle, creepy soundtrack help push this film beyond the realm of being just another standard 1970's scream-inducing shock flick.

When A Stranger Calls is not only better than any of the "stalker" movies to come after it, but it is a very sophisticated film. I find the arguments about the middle being boring to be vacuous in the extreme. These critiques have missed the brilliant story writing that puts the former killer into a role so pathetic that the audience is made to feel sorry for him, and casts the former hero (Durning) in the role of the villian. By the end of the film, this plotline flips yet again when the killer resumes his former identity. This whole role-reversal theme is so refreshingly different from the "faceless killer with butcher knife" borefest we've been subjected to for the last twenty years! It's too bad this movie gets passed over in most histories of the modern horror film genre, because it's the best of them.

I would have to agree that Carol Kane is the engine in this movie. Her acting is superb as the frightened babysitter and later victim of a madman.
The first 18 minutes are relentless and memorable (similar to the beginning of the first 'Scream' flick). The director draws the tension so tight you sit literally on the edge of your seat.
The last 18 minutes are equally as taut. However, the middle of the movie is slow and could have been written much better.
I still gave this movie 5 stars because it still holds the thrill... even if it's only in the beginning and the end.

I saw this with my parents when I was in 6th grade... I can't believe they took me to see this disturbing film! I just stopped having nightmares last year. It was such a popular film, however, that about every kid in my school had seen it and before such phrases as "Where's the Beef?" and "Show me the money!" became part of pop culture, everyone was saying, "have you checked the children?"

Seriously though, this film isn't for children. It's true life horror and even more true to home in these violent days we live in. When this film came out, no one ever heard stories about Polly Klaas or other children abuducted from their own bedrooms, or intruders entering a home for any purpose other than burglary. Sure, it happened... but it wasn't as prevalent as it is today.

Not contented enough to kill two young children with his bare hands, the antagonist intends to finish off the babysitter as well. Carol Kane is superbly convincing as the terrorized babysitter and Charles Durning does a stunning job as the police detective that won't rest until he can get rid of this guy for good. Slow in some places, but they're really just getting you calm enough so that scare the wits out of you when you least expect it.

The film is most focused on psychological terror... you really don't see much violence, you just hear about it and expect it. It may seem a little unsophisticated by today's standards, but it will scare the willies out of you.

When a Stranger Calls, originally written as a one act play where a psychopath terrorizes a baby sitter via phone, was padded for the film, adding a middle where we meet the killer and an finale where the killer goes after the baby sitter again. I don't want to say much more about the plot other than to say that the middle part demotes this film from 5 to 4 stars for me. The film generates too much sympathy for the killer. For me, I would have rather had the director make the killer a faceless evil presence like Michael Myers in Halloween. In Psycho it was different as Hitchcock played the audience like a piano, transferring its sympathy from Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) to Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) after the shower scene. Even after being exposed as the murderer, Norman still elicits sympathy. However, the killer in When a Stranger Calls is a different case. His acts are so shocking and terrible that I felt the filmmakers should have made him less of an object of pity and more of a monster. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, The Zodiac and Richard Ramirez have shown that monsters without redeeming qualities do exist.

However, this film is well worth watching for the first act alone. Carol Kane is able to shed the bubbleheaded weirdo image she was typecast into after Taxi and portray a three-dimensional character who is rightfully terrified of her psychopathic caller. The director, using ever decreasing lighting, evokes an increasing level of terror from the audience, leading up to one of the most jolting revelations in horror/suspense film history. The third act is very well done as well with one last shock that will scare the hell out of you. However, it is the film's first act that sets it apart and which makes it well worth seeing, even taking into account the very flawed second act. One thing is for sure -- for the rest of your life, you will never be able to hear this phrase without feeling a chill up your spine:

"Have you checked the children?"

Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is a young girl babysitting two children for a doctor and his wife. All is well until the phone rings. Jill receives several calls from a lunatic who keeps asking her if she's checked the children. The tension mounts as Jill grows increasingly terrified. We can feel her frustration when she calls the police, only to be told it's no big deal. Finally, the cops listen to her and put a trace on the phone. That's when we find out that the caller is using another extension from inside the same house! Jill heads for the exit, the cops arrive, the kids upstairs are found mutilated, the killer is apprehended, end of story, right? Nope. Seven years later, Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) escapes from the mental institution he's been kept in. Now it's up to private detective John Clifford (Charles Durning) to track him down before he kills again. Clifford has a vendetta against Duncan and plans on murdering him. You see, Clifford was one of the cops who arrested Duncan, and has been hired by his victims' father to do away with him. This middle part of the movie is interesting, as we follow Duncan to bars and homeless shelters, watching him become all the more desperate and maniacal. We also go along with Clifford as he stays one step behind Duncan, even employing the help of the wonderful Colleen Dewhurst as a lonely woman who just may be on the madman's to do list! Then, in the final act, we catch up with Jill Johnson, now living her own blissful, married life in suburbia. She has kids of her own now, and has no idea that Curt Duncan has just seen her picture in the paper! Will history repeat itself? Or will Duncan get what's coming to him? WHEN A STRANGER CALLS is a variation on the old urban legend with the same babysitter / crazy caller on the other line / kids upstairs scenario. I first heard the tale back in 1970-71. It's been around for quite a while and was also used to great effect in 1974s BLACK CHRISTMAS w/ Margot Kidder. Watch and enjoy. Highly recommended...

So rare is the occasion that I am so genuinely scared by a film that I get not only chills in the moment, but also afterward when reliving scenes from the movie in my head. When a Stranger Calls is just such a movie for me. Other reviewers here have done the movie justice by their discussion of it's opening and closing scenes, but what they are forgetting is that it's meaty middle is supposed to give you a different sense of forboding than what we were used to seeing in movies of this sort before that point. I firmly believe that were it not for this well put together central portion, I myself wouldn't have been nearly as scared as I was at the films fantastic finale. The beginning is absolutely mind blowing and it's seemingly impossible to compete with it's shocking strength value, but the finale is one of the most terrifying pieces of horror history. Never before has there been such a true terror experience onscreen. You feel for Kane's charachter of Jill throughout her scenes because it is SO real. You identify with her every facial nuance as she goes through her scenes. You feel her terror as if you were in the scene yourself. You are more scared than she is because you yourself have witnessed part of what this maniac's mind is all about and she hasn't. She DOESN'T know, and that is often just as frightening. This is truly masterful moviemaking that is so often emulated, but only comes out diluted and or fake in other movies. If only more could get their thrillers this right. 5.5 stars

"The call is coming from inside the house"! That famous line had movie goers screaming! I had not seen this film since I saw it in the theater many years ago. I was very surprised at how well it held up. This version blows the remake out of the water! I actually forgot the second and most of the third acts when watching this film. It has good acting, pacing, suspense and tension, even if It seems a little tame by today's standards. I think it still delivers the goods and I give it 3 1/2 stars. The DVD transfer is very good.

This movie single handily ruined my babysitting career! It didn't matter that I usually babysat in single floor homes, or that they only had one phone / phone number attached to the house. The whole idea of that movied scared the crap out of me! In '79, I was 10 years old, (telling my age), and roughly the time I began to babysit.... Wrong movie to see at that time!! LOL! But I can't WAIT to see it again! :) By todays standards, people might say it's not scary or that it's just plain silly... Give it a chance! It's one of the best supsense/thriller's I know of! By The Way: Have You Checked The Children????

In the movie "When A Stranger Calls", Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst and Charles Durning star in one of the best horror movies of all-time. In fact, the first 15-20 minutes of this flick is UNRIVALED as the scariest 15-20 in all of horror movie cinema in my opinion and I have seen them all. The ending is also extraordinarily horrifying as the killer returns to visit his old friend.

The score or soundtrack of this film is equally terrifying and presents the mood of the film perfectly every step of the way from beginning to end. In fact, I have searched for this soundtrack for years and have yet to find Dana Kaproff's masterpiece of dark theme music.

The plot is simple yet terrifying. A babysitter named Jill, played by Carol Kane, is tormented by ominous phone calls from a stranger who at first only asks, "have you checked the children?" Oh, but how horrifying a line that is when you are a babysitter who is alone in a dark two story house with two small children upstairs.

Carol Kane does a terrific job as Jill and really poignantly expresses the horror associated with such a situation. At first, Jill just thinks it is some weirdo making stupid phone calls, but then she suspects that he can see her from somewhere outside.

So, Jill calls the police who assures her that there is nothing to worry about, but they will trace the call nonetheless. Although, Jill is right in her suspicion that the phone caller can see her, she has no idea where he is and the location of this mysterious yet chilling caller is more horrifying than anything Jill could ever imagine.

This movie is very interesting because even though the audience may suspect what is going on, it is still unbelievably scary and that's the brilliance of this horror flick.

I do not want to completely give the movie away, but the above plot is the basic idea although the movie does develop into a thriller in another sense in the middle of the movie as Mr. Clifford, played by Charles Durning, attempts to track the psychopathic killer named Kurt Duncan, who is obviously insane.

It is amazing how such a simple plot can be so terrifying especially when you have top notch acting as you have in this film and such a great soundtrack that provides the horrifying theme and mood music which complements the action of the movie so well that is simply a joy to watch again and again...what a truly great movie "When A Stranger Calls" is and it is definitely one of my top 10 scariest horror movies of all-time!

Fellow horror movie fans, this movie just does not get enough credit and that is such a shame because this movie is such a gem. You never see this movie on television and I don't know why...the movie has very little cussing in it, no nudity and hardly any gore, but it provides some of the greatest horrors that we can possibly imagine as a society.

"When A Stranger Calls" is a must own and it is 5+ STARS worthy, but a word of caution if you have not seen this movie before, DO NOT watch this movie alone at night in a big house or you will be terrified beyond your wildest dreams!!! If you have not watched it before, I must say that I envy you because you are in for a real horrifying treat! They don't make them like this anymore folks!! I love "When A Stranger Calls" and if you are a true horror movie fan, you will love it to. After all, what does Kurt Duncan want...he just wants your blood all over him!

On a side note, I think it's worth mentioning that if you like this "When A Stranger Calls" (which if you are a real horror movie fan, you most certainly do), you would also like the original "Black Christmas" which was made prior to "When A Stranger Calls". Both movies are classics in every sense of the word. Another piece of horror cinema that is a true gem is from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour called "An Unlocked Window", which is a bit different because it's shorter in length, but very much classic horror at its absolute finest!! Good luck finding that gem ANYWHERE though, unfortunately. I have no idea why, but you simply cannot find this on DVD or even VHS that I know of, but it truly is one scary hour that you will never forget, and one of the most shocking and scariest endings in all of horror, but you might not want to watch it alone on a rainy night...then again, you might not want to watch any of these movies alone on a rainy night.