When a Stranger Calls (2006)

Another movie that wasn't worth the money it cost me to rent. Now, there are some people who say 'if you see the original first', well I didn't, I saw the remake first and with nothing to compare it to, knew it sucked. Then there are people who say 'if it's not blood and guts', well that wasn't the case either because when you DO see the original When a Stranger Calls, there is virtually no blood or violence, 99% of it all is implied, you never see the dead kids but you know the man left them beyond recognition and KNOWING that and not even seeing it, is very scary.

So...what can I say about this one? It was a complete waste of time. Oh, this bratty teenager needs to learn responsibility because she spent 13 hours over her limit on her phone yelling at her boyfriend because he kissed a girl. So instead of standing on her feet 6 hours a day bagging groceries or scrubbing toilets, she can stuff herself and watch TV while watching some kids at the big mansion on the far edge of town miles from civilization where the family is so rich they have a state of the art mansion with sensor lights and their own housekeeper but nobody to watch their kids...yes that is VERY believable, hence the terrifying idea that it COULD happen, right?

Also, HOW stupid are her parents, there's a baby-sitter serial killer on the loose so she's going to baby sit to pay for her phone, parents of the year.

AND, it's what, an hour and a half? And what is over half of the movie? Walk walk walk, lights, walk walk walk, oh jewelry, walk walk walk, phone, walk walk walk, lights...EVERYBODY knows that NOTHING scary is going to happen until the cops tell her the calls are coming from inside the house which we saw in the trailer before it even came out in theaters, so we already know the storyline before it even came out.

Also this movie is not scary because the kids survive, that's not scary, the victims we see are the housekeeper and a stupid drunken slut, again, not scary, and this skinny girl who we HAVE to see is a track runner in the beginning because that's got something to do with later in the movie, right?, runs for her life and fights with the killer, he goes to jail, she goes to the hospital and goes waka-waka and loses her mind. Again, I'm not seeing ANYTHING in this that is scary, I watched this whole movie with no expectations and was bored out of my mind.

I liked it and thought it was pretty good. Of course I liked the orginal movies with Carol Kane When a Stranger Calls and When a Stranger Calls back.

When a Stranger Calls Back was a very good one because that's different but still terrifying...and I've often wondered which would be worse, to be in Jill's position and the children are horribly murdered while in her care, or like the other girl, the children disappear and for 10 years nobody knows if they're alive or dead.

Supernova wrote:When a Stranger Calls Back was a very good one because that's different but still terrifying...and I've often wondered which would be worse, to be in Jill's position and the children are horribly murdered while in her care, or like the other girl, the children disappear and for 10 years nobody knows if they're alive or dead.

I think I would rather have the children disappear because this way there is always that slim chance they are still alive somewhere.