A Film from the tale end of my Theater days. I remember none of it.
When A Stranger Calls is the 2006 Remake of the 1979 Film that is famous for one line and its gimmick.
To call this one a Remake is a gray area though. Let me explain...
The original Film's Intro Scene (around 20 minutes) is about the Babysitter and the famous call. It pivots from there.
This Remake is JUST that part of the Film.
For comparison, imagine a Remake of Psycho- wait, don't hit me!- that was just the part where she steals the money, flees and is killed in the Shower.
That aside...aside is this a good Film.
It came from Simon West, the Director of Expendables 2, Con Air and the Rick Roll.
No, really. He Directed that Video.
Is this mostly forgotten Remake a good one or trash? To find out, read on...
As the Credits roll, we see a full of Fair/Carnival happening outside of a home. I guess it's a Birthday Party.
We hear a concerned Mom and a scream.
Next we see Cops investigating and an older Detective reacts in shock to what he sees.
 |
| It's PG-13, so use your imagination. |
We never see this Cop again. Cool.
The Film really follows our Heroine- Push's Camilla Belle, who has some teen drama going on involving a bad friend- Arrow's Katie Cassidy- making out with her boyfriend.
She gets solace from her good friend-
Thor: Ragnarok's Tessa Thompson.
Her boyfriend's apologies don't work, but there's a side effect. She went WAY over her minutes and now has to pay her Parents back.
Can you tell that this is from 2006?
Her Dad-
Agents of SHIELD's Clark Gregg- drives her out to the remote House that she's babysitting at.
We don't see him again until the finale. Cool.
Said House is indeed remote and I'd say that it looks like it is CGI...if it looked that good for a Film like this in 2006.
The Parents- which include
Poltergeist: The Legacy's Derek De Lint- leave, explaining that the kids are asleep upstairs and the Maid may be lurking about.
As noted, why hire a Babysitter if you have a Maid.
In any event, she starts getting weird phone calls...many of them.
She calls the Police, who agree to help her track the line. Even so, they can't be out there in less than 20 minutes.
The calls keep coming and even the brief visit of Cassidy- who somehow got the address and entered through the open Garage Door and Gate- doesn't help.
Eventually, she gets him on the phone long enough.
As the next call rings, the Cop says the famous line.
She goes to find that the kids are alright- hiding in their rooms- and tries to escape with them.
During said escape, she finds Cassidy's body in the bathroom!
The Stranger finally appears and no longer talks. He was so chatty- as Lance Henriksen- earlier.
She finds that the Maid is Dead. Does she qualify as a Poor Bastard of Cinema without appearing until now?
After a tense Third Act, she wounds the man and runs to the Police.
In the aftermath, she wakes up in her Hospital Room and panics when the phone rings.
She is grabbed by the Stranger...and wakes up screaming.
Yes, this was indeed a Tacked On Dream Sequence Finale. Sigh.
The End.
A Film that's honestly pretty good, if not as engaging as they would hope.
This isn't a knock on the Actress, as one person can't truly make or break a Film. She does her best with the role, which features many vacant stares, concerned glances and uncertain body language.
In the cut, they wisely chose to focus almost SOLELY on her for most of the Film. Deleted Scenes- what little there are- show the other side of her conversations and, yeah, it's less engaging that way.
They need you to feel like her- isolated, in a big space with no exit and worried.
The trade-off is that some people- like Thompson in her Film Debut- only get the 2 Scenes (the second being a brief phone call later in the Film).
The Stranger as a concept is good. He's certainly underdeveloped, of course, as he's just a menace that is a pure blank slate to create terror.
Henriksen literally phones in the role, but doesn't figuratively. It's just a shame that he has so little to do here.
This one was clearly cut up quite a bit- the DVD Box shows a shot of the Cop talking to Belle which isn't in the Film- and it doesn't aspire to be more than a decent to good Film about a scared Babysitter.
Even so, points to whoever came up with this shot.
Next up, I might as well cover the Marvel Frankenstein Anime during this Season. Will it be less bizarre? Stay tuned...
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