The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs

I wanted to get everyone's opinion about this. A few months back on a board for the original When a Stranger Calls movie, the question came up about how old Jill is supposed to be. The main thing one person pointed at was that Jill didn't call her parents after the killer started calling her. And my response was why would she? If it were me in her position, I wouldn't call my parents, it was a matter for the police and that's who she called. In all the years I'd heard the story and seen the movie it never ONCE occurred to me 'why doesn't she call her parents?', what good would that have done? That part NEVER seemed odd to me, what's everyone else think?

One thing to remember is that there were no cell phones back then. Calling her parents would have meant knowing where they were. It is quite possible that since it was supposed to be a weekend, that her parents also had gone out to dinner/movie etc. I dont remember if she called a friend, which in my opinion is more likely for a teenage girl. Back then before caller ID, we often received crank calls and heavy breathers--- I remember a guy said something to my teen sister and she replied back, "come on pal, i see better stuff than that on TV". I think that it was a "disturbing" situation for Carol Kane, but she never really thought it was a dangerous one.

Not immediately anyway. And other people have talked about that, saying they would just forget the kids and run since going to check the kids would just be stupid and get you killed. I pointed out not necessarily because she didn't have any proof he was upstairs.

A few years back there was a special on TV where a woman who studied killers talked about the real Hannibal Lectors and that they were not charismatic and charming like in the movies, she talked about one who called her late at night and said he was outside her front window, to come look. He knew where in the house she was and he could describe things in her house and kept saying he was outside the front window, come look, and she pulled back the curtain and he said 'gotcha', he was locked up somewhere but with access to a phone and able to make it seem like he was right there.

I also should have said that most people only had one phone line in the house too. It wasnt until the next decade that teens started getting their own lines and later people added them in offices for dial up modems. So theoretically, if he was calling, she was MORE safe than if he wasnt. Atleast that is what she would have thought if she didnt know that there was a phone upstairs

That is true, this movie being a few years before cell phones and about a decade or more before they were a convenient size, as long as he was on the phone with her he couldn't do anything to her. It was once he hung up that she was in danger.

Can I just say that you guys just gave me extreme nightmare fuel?

It's 2 AM here, and now I can't sleep.

OH, and now we're getting a thunderstorm.

BRB, crying under my bed.

We got a storm here too! And it's 1 here!

I turned my lights on. I need a hunky fireman or cop to come share my bed.

That'd make me feel better!

(Oh!) Rob Petrie wrote:I turned my lights on. I need a hunky fireman or cop to come share my bed.

That'd make me feel better!

poor rob, here ya go..

*mine*

He's all yours

almost midnight here and Im really glad I didn't know this story during my babysitting days. Heard it years later and yeah - never occured to me that the girl would have called her parents. She was old enough to be babysitting so why would they assume she'd call her parents - more likely her friends at that age. It's not like she was 12 or 13.

Exactly, I don't think it was ever said in the movie how old she was but Carol Kane was 28, and in the movie 7 years pass and she has two small children, I had her pegged at 17, I think that age fits.

(Oh!) Rob Petrie wrote:I turned my lights on. I need a hunky fireman or cop to come share my bed.

That'd make me feel better!

Find one with a brother for me!

Sure, but you gotta wear that pom pom outfit.

was hoping to wear the handcuffs!

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but leather and chains excite me."

Has anybody ever seen the films Black Christmas or Amusement? They're both based on this tale.

I got Black Christmas recorded off TCM's Underground last December but I never got around to watching it.

Black Christmas is supposed to be the most frightening. I just watched the babysitter scene in Amusement... they did a damn good job.

They went with the clown-variant, where a scary clown doll turns out to be the killer.

I dont remember Black Christmas, but i know that when it came out, it was really publicized and banned in some places. There was a huge movement against it, which probably led to horror fans gravitating towards it.