When a Stranger Calls (remake)

[haws bah gawd 0]

I watched this last night. I've yet to see the original so I have no opinion of it. While the music in the movie was quite enjoyable, the film itself was lacking. At the beginning of the film we see a little foreshadowing with a prior phone-stalking murder and the victim being taken from the scene in several different bodybags. The we see that Jill (the "hero" of the movie) is a runner in her high school, who just cant break 25 seconds. This seemed to have no point since it had no relevance to the rest of the film. I suppose its just there for character development. So them we see that Jill is forced into the babysitting gig by her Dad because she went over her cell phone plan by 800 minutes. So she goes to Dr. Mendrakis' house to babysit his kids who have the flu, and she starts getting harassing calls. So anyways this goes on and on for what seems like eternity, and she calls the police to tell them that she is getting harassing phone calls but she doesnt know who they're from. Nevermind the fact that we have seen, and she has acknowledged, that the phone has CALLER ID!!!!! So anyway the film drags and drags from this point on, until finally the police call her back to let her know the phone has been traced to inside of the house. Cliche chase scene follows, and the film ends rather abruptly. No motive is ever given for the murders, and the identity of the killer is never revealed. To whatever film company produced this movie, I want my $8.00, and 90 minutes back please.

[Guest Smues]

Not that I had any interest in the film to begin with, but giving away the fact that "We've traced the call, it's coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!" in the trailers is really really really stupid.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I haven't seen it, but from what I've read I think the original had what sounds like the entire remake in the first 20 minutes or so, and the rest was a cliched cop drama where a detective follows the killer years later or something.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Heres a fun article from Retrocrush.com on the original.

 

Here is the article:

 

Long before SCREAM turned sadistic crank-calling the recipe for box office gold, Carol Kane played a babysitter in 1979's When a Stranger Calls who was tormented over the phone. What she thinks is a joke, turns scary as the caller asks about the kids and mentions other details that reveal he knows a lot more about her than a stranger should. After numerous calls to the police, they call her back with the classic warning, "We've traced the calls...they're coming from inside your house!" As ludicrous as that sounds, it makes for an incredibly suspenseful ending. Of course with today's technology, the caller ID would show that right away and the movie would have only been 5 minutes long.

 

They actually did a made for TV sequel to this called When A Stranger Calls Back in 1993. Thankfully, plans for future installments "When A Stranger Instant Messages You", "When A Stranger Calls Using 1-800-CALL-ATT", and "When Stranger Telemarkets You Even Though You're On The Do Not Call List" were scrapped.

 

The bolded text shows my thoughts on this movie, and the funny part is the article was written in what I believe to be 2003.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

I have no plans to see this, but the main character ends up dying? Meh.

[haws bah gawd 0]

No, the main character doesn't die. The movie just kind of ends out of nowhere.

EDIT: 900 POSTS YEA!

[Placebo Effect 0]

I'm looking forward to the direct-to-video knockofff

 

 

Seriously.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Speaking of IMing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_a_Strang...%282006_film%29

 

Advertisement

For the release of the film, AOL Instant Messenger ran ads beckoning users to IM Jill020306. When messaged, "Jill" (a Conversagent program) made small talk before panicking, as she received calls from a stranger, asking her to check the children. She then gives the user her phone number (a toll-free 877 number) and asks them to call her. When users call, they hear an ad for the movie. Like many automated messaging agents, "Jill" is easily confused, which resulted in some unintentionally hilarious moments.

 

Jill: i think i am going crazy. look, all my friends r at a party - u need 2 call me and listen in on this call.

User: how you doing?

Jill: i'm doing great. u?

 

Sometimes other glitches occur, such as Jill asking what she should do before telling the user that a stranger is calling her.

 

Yeah this is nice.

[SpikeFayeJettEdBebop 0]

Not that I am going to see this movie, or that it is ANY good, but it should be realised that caller ID can simply be blocked....

[Lil' Bitch 0]

When Pat O'Brien Calls

[2GOLD 0]

I'm looking forward to the direct-to-video knockofff

 

 

Seriously.

 

Nice boobs.

The preview gave away the whole film and saved me the money.

[Special K 0]

The first act of the original was really tautly-paced and nicely creepy. The rest sucked.

[Slayer 0]

Not that I am going to see this movie, or that it is ANY good, but it should be realised that caller ID can simply be blocked....

"He can dial *67, he's a master of stealth!"

[RedJed 0]

There was a post at a horror message board I go to, and this guy was right f'n on with my thoughts on this film. I ended up going to it out of boredom on opening weekend and I cant recall a movie in recent memory that I felt so ripped off from paying matinee price for. Even completely smoked out didnt help this one...his message below.....

 

"I saw this on Friday night, and like most of the others here, I thought it was utterly hopeless. Other adjectives that describe this mess would include inane, bloodless, gutless, shallow, predictable, poorly written, laughable, and terrible. "

 

Basically, I felt like I was watching an episode of Goosebumps. "

 

My additional thoughts is that this is completely geared to young teenage females as I was surrounded in the theatre but nothing more but that. Of course they all were jumping and screaming at the most blatantly cliche shit EVER (like the cat jumping out of the corner, keys falling out of girls hand when she is trying to escape into her car, etc, etc) which made it even worse to sit through.

 

The young girl in the movie is a hot piece of ass but thats still not enough to make this watchable at all.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Anyone else perplexed that the idea of her running a lap around the gym, and the drunken highschool bonfire had absolutely nothing to do with the movie? Why put it in the film, if in the end, it's pointless?

 

 

I guess the bonfire was an excuse for her to not be able to call any of her friends, and the gym thing was just to show that she can run?

[RedJed 0]

Anyone else perplexed that the idea of her running a lap around the gym, and the drunken highschool bonfire had absolutely nothing to do with the movie? Why put it in the film, if in the end, it's pointless?

 

 

I guess the bonfire was an excuse for her to not be able to call any of her friends, and the gym thing was just to show that she can run?

 

I think the bonfire thing was an excuse for all of her friend's cell phones not getting a signal out there so she couldn't call them for help. Thats probably the best explanation with the gym scene, what shitty exposition that was if so.

[cynicalprofit 0]

After reading the short story, the movie loses all appeal.

[Guest guerillagenius]

Aim I wrong (I haven't seen either) but wasn't the big gimmick to the entire original "The calls are coming from inside the house!"? So how the hell can you remake this movie? That's like remaking The 6th Sense or The Crying Game.