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Hang Up On This Stranger--A Thriller As Tedious As An Incess

K. Harris | Las Vegas, NV | 11/29/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Another in a long line of remakes, "When A Stranger Calls" tells the story of a young baby-sitter and her two charges tormented by a madman. This is your standard omnipresent evildoer--he can be anywhere at anytime with no basis in logic. In fact, one scene involving the guest house--he's practically in two places at once! Apparently he stalks young women (so the film tells us)--however this baby-sitter was hired at the last minute, so I'm not sure how he targeted this house in the middle of nowhere and knew the owners would be going out. Quite frankly, with a live-in maid--I'm not quite sure why they hired a baby-sitter they didn't know to sit their kids who were already fast asleep. Rosa, the maid, seemed nice enough--surely she wouldn't have minded the extra bit of bother. But let's not dwell.

In truth, there's nothing wrong with the idea of remaking "When A Stranger Calls." While I'm not a huge fan of remakes, the original movie certainly had ample opportunities for improvement. All anyone remembers from the Carol Kane film are the first twenty minutes. But those twenty minutes are classic suspense and hugely effective. Unfortunately, the remainder of the film devolved into a rather routine police procedural. This updating sought to isolate the scenario from the beginning of that movie and expand it to feature length. However, that becomes a little trickier when technology has improved so vastly in the last 25 years. Home phones are almost obsolete these days in the era of cell phones, Internet, text messages, etc.--not to mention features on the phone like Caller ID and Blocking.

But anyway, we'll set all that aside for now. The technological improbability is the least of this film's issues. More to the forefront is a complete lack of originality. Seriously this movie is about 30 minutes of one sided telephone conversations, 30 minutes of being frightened in dark rooms by innocuous sounds, 15 minutes of unnecessary and unsuccessful character development, and 15 minutes of confrontation. The telephone interchanges are so tedious--she must answer the phone 40 times and never once does someone just say "Hi" right off the bat. The creeping around in the dark is so familiar--the cat scares her on more than one occasion (the most overused thriller cliche in existence). When we get to the big confrontation, it's absolutely routine. No one is required to be ingenious, heroic, or otherwise noteworthy--it's all run and cry. The kids are particularly hysterical--they don't have one line in the film, they just blubber.

Absolutely unnecessary in every way, this isn't even the least bit fun. Camilla Belle is an interesting actress (with interesting eyebrows). She has chosen fascinating roles before--I particularly liked "The Ballad of Jack and Rose." I only hope she doesn't get caught in the bad horror movie cycle many other young actors seem to be trapped in. Pass this one up. KGHarris, 11/06.

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Whatever You Do, Don't Answer The Phone, While watching this

K. Harris | 04/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Typical teen Jill Johnson has gone over her mobile phone bill and must make up the money to pay for it, thus why she baby sits for a rich family. Everything's go perfectly, the kids in bed, the alarm system activated... She settles down for a boring night...... But then... The phone rings.... A series of anonymous terrifying phone calls escalate until the stranger asks her "Have you checked the children lately?"

The events that unfold are truly terrifying....


This Film Is.... Absolutely amazing!!!!!

This would have to be without a doubt the best horror movie I have seen in a long time, the movies success is thanks to the amazing brunette Camilla Belle who plays the protagonist Jill Johnson (The Patriot), she gives an outstanding performance of the terrified victim. A refreshing change from the cliché blonde victim.

Based on one of the scariest of all urban legends 'The Babysitter and the man upstairs" this film is extremely suspenseful and will have you on the edge of your seat until the closing credits and last SURPRISE!

I extremely recommend this film to everyone, it's scary without making you feel sick at how scary it was. Amazing time and effort went into making it and this can be seen through extravagant surroundings (the house she baby sits at is UNBELIEVABLE!)and lighting is equally brilliant.

Plenty of scares and thrills in this!!!! Belle's acting is brilliant and your yearning for her to be ok...

Sit back and enjoy....

But whatever you do, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!"

Surprisingly good!

Ray | Boston | 02/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i wanted to see this movie after hearing about it, and it did not dissapoint. the movie got off to a creepy and mysterious beggining all the way to a great ending.

overall the movie is great with its jump and mystery scenes. the director sure knows how to get the hair in the back of your neck to rise, even if the mystery scene (with great music) turned out to be not to scary."

Terrible

Alexis Brown | Missouri | 06/20/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was beyond awful. My best friend and I are both scary movie buffs, and we both see pretty much every scary movie that comes out. Now I have NOT seen the original, so I have nothing to compare it to- but I'm thinking- how could the original be WORSE? I was in disbelief when the movie ended. My best friend and I were just left to say, "THAT was it?!" The people behind us uttered, "I paid eight bucks for THAT?!" We were very disappointed. This movie hardly has an ounce of suspense. There are only 2 murders in the movie...and both of the characters who DO get killed are not main characters at all and have no relevance to the movie. It doesn't show them getting murdered either- their bodies just turn up later. Then at the end, we are finally relieved and we get to find out who the killer is..right? Nope. The killer is just some guy! Just some random guy that we know nothing about. There is NO story to this whatsoever. On why he chose that house, who he is, NOTHING. This movie is awful."