When a Stranger Calls featuring Voiceover by Artist/Actor Lance Henriksen as the Stranger
Mood:
a-ok
Topic: Interesting!!!!!!
I enjoyed this movie despite that the negative reviews versus positive views were outweighed 5 to 1. A lot of the negative reviews make reference to the original movie as though it should be the "baseline." Have they heard the saying "that if you live in the past you will not enjoy the future"? I don't quite understand most reviewer's biases towards remakes. Why would we want a remake to be near exactly to the original? If so, what is the point of the remake? In my opinion, the movie was very entertaining and had me in suspense when the stranger started calling. In addition, Actress Camilla Belle, in my opinion, did a fine job carrying a movie as the leading actress in most scences by herself. There are some things I would not have done having lived in a major city all my life so far. To illustrate, Rosie the housekeeper would have been on her own. I would not have gone to the guesthouse looking for Rosie or the son of the people that hired the baby sitter. In addition, where I live the police would have sent a car out probably during the first call especially with a teenager in a remote unfamiliar location. We pay too much taxes for a somewhat middle class neighorhood to have any lesser service unless the police officers are bored. Just kidding. Anyway, too much realism in films can deplete the entertainment value. If films were so true to "real life" who would bother to watch. Besides, we have enough "real life or reality television shows" and we definitely do not need "reality" or "real life" films. In fact, there are too many "real life" or "reality" television shows. Unfortunately, they are very popular among the viewers and I must admit entertaining. We could just film ourselves and friends and entertain ourselves including making our own popcorn. On a serious note the movie is worth a buy and/or rental. Make up your own mind. Following will be other reviewer's comments. By Lafemmenikita07
Interview with Actress Camilla Belle
When A Stranger Calls, Hollywood Answers
From Staci Wilson,
Your Guide to Horror & Suspense Movies.
Source: About.com
Interview with Actress Camilla Belle
"I hate horror movies!" says Camilla Belle, leading lady of When A Stranger Calls (opening in theaters nationwide today). She says she doesn't get off on horror.
Hopefully, her fans won't feel the same way. This PG-13 remake of a much more mentally brutal film from 1979 qualifies as horror, but Belle and her director, Simon West, went into the project with movies like Wait Until Dark and The Birds strongly in mind. Belle plays Jill Johnson, a high school track athlete who loves to talk on her cell phone — so much so, that she's exceeded her minutes and she's put on restriction by her dad (Clark Gregg). Worse still, Jill is forced to pay the bill off by babysitting. Her first gig is for Dr. and Mrs. Mandrakis (Derek de Lint, Kate Jennings Grant) and initially it seems easy as pie. The flu-addled kids are asleep in a Nyquil-induced stupor, and the big showplace of a house is better than any five-star hotel, complete with a big screen TV, stereo, an atrium, and a fridge full of vittles. Jill is doing just fine, until she starts getting bizarre, threatening phone calls. "Have you checked the children?" asks the male caller. "Are you sure they're all right?" Alone in the isolated, fishbowl of a house, the young woman begins to freak out……Then the phone rings for real. During our interviews, a telephone in the room started ringing incessantly, sending costar Katie Cassidy and the journalists into fits of laughter. But it's nervous laughter. Cassidy admits that she is somewhat like her character, Tiffany, in that she might do "dumb" things in the face of danger, "I would seriously freak out, too. I'm such a scaredy cat. Especially like… we shot it in the woods, and were hearing noises. I would freak out. I would like try to get hold of somebody on my cell phone. I'd be like, 'Come and get me. I'm so scared!' I might start crying, like Tiffany does."
Belle says that she had a few tricks up her mental sleeve to help her get into character. "At first it was a bit difficult to try to get into that, and to realize what I had to do to get myself to that point. I had to come up with sort of visuals in my head to make myself scared and whatnot. Before I did the film, I saw the old classics by Hitchcock and things like Rosemary's Baby and The Shining.
"Jack Nicholson really did become The Stranger for me. I would get his DVD box in my trailer and stare at it for a really long time and think, 'Ok, that's it'. Then I would run to the set and get ready for the scene. I did things like that to pump myself up. "I point out to Belle that there's almost a 'Shining moment' in When A Stranger Calls. "I know," she laughs. "I felt like I needed to get my knife, you know, and start screaming on the set. We were all kind of joking around about that, that day. "While Belle admits she never did baby-sit in real life, Cassidy has. Cassidy, obviously no stranger to urban legends surrounding the job, always used the buddy system. "I used to baby-sit but never by myself. I always brought a friend with me, one of my girlfriends, and we'd baby-sit together. Because it was scary. It freaked me out to be in the house like that, watching the kids. "Both young actresses say that above all else, the script and the director was the deciding factor (none of them, not even West, have seen the 1979 original). "The way the script was written was really cool," says Cassidy. "I like the idea that they used the first 20 minutes of the original and made it into a whole film. [My character is a new invention, but] she is a fun character. The fact that Simon West was directing, that was a big bonus. So those things really made me want to do it. "But will audiences want to see it? In two days' time, Monday's box office report will tell.”
Comments from other reviewers:
When a Stranger Calls, April 12, 2006
Reviewer: speed_on_wheelz I was very disappointed with this movie. I thought it was gonna be way better. I read numerous reviews saying bad things about the film, but I didn't think anything of it. I thought they were just poking fun. This movie is basically about a young girl by the name of Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) who baby-sits for the Mandrakis' one night while they go out. The Mandrakis' live in a huge house. Every room is big; the closet, the bedrooms, everything. One is bound to get lost in a house that big. It's not until the middle of the film that the stranger calls, harassing poor Jill. He asks if she's `checked the children'. He only asks this once or twice during the film. When the stranger finally comes to the house, he wants to kill the babysitter, and eventually later the children. It's so stupid, because the stranger doesn't even want anything. It would have made more sense if (for example) Jill's father put the stranger in jail for whatever reason, and now he's out wanting revenge. That would have made more sense and make the story more interesting. But no, this guy is just sick in the head. I found this movie scary, but then again, I'd be scared too if I was alone in a mansion of a house.
Tense from start to finish..., February 6, 2006
Reviewer: Damian "The Dark One is I" (TX) I have to say I had my doubts walking into this film. First off it only recieved a PG-13 rating and with flops like Cry_Wolf, you know, your just a litty weary. Don't be. From the opening frames this movie ellicits suspence higher than a lot of movies I've seen lately. The film revolves around Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle), a young high schooler who just got grounded for going over her cell phone minutes and is reduced to babysitting in order to pay the bill off. This also means that her cell phone has been turned off and she has no car. That means her father has to drive her out to the middle of nowhere so she can babysit for a doctor and his wife. So when she starts to get weird calls from a man she at first thinks it's her ex-boyfriend, and for a time she's half right since he's pranked her as well. But as the calls come in more frequently and it becomes apparent that he's watching her somehow she gets to police involved and they in turn tell her that the calls are coming from inside the house. From that point on the film takes a turn to the cat and mouse hide and stay hidden run and run fast type film and it delivers enough chills and thrills to satisfy the scarymoviejunkie. What I appreciated about this film is they used the old Hitchcock type method of letting the real thrills take more of a mental approach, relying on real intensity rather than gore for scares and it works...really works! I'd recomend this movie because it's intense and it's realistic...it could really happen and that makes the scares all the more real. I loved it, shockingly, and I really think a lot of people will enjoy this thrill ride from start to finish. Brilliant!
Have You Checked The Maid?, September 17, 2006
Reviewer: K. Fontenot "Prairie Cajun" (Southwest Louisiana)
"When A Stranger Calls" is a slowly-paced, somewhat boring remake of another film from many years ago. I saw the original, but it's been so long ago that I don't remember how good it was. In this version, young Jill (Camilla Bell) is grounded for going over on her cellphone minutes. She's also forced to pay the bill. How does she do that? She gets a job babysitting in the middle of the woods and is driven there by her father who has lost all trust in her. She begins getting prank calls, starts hearing noises, and can't get any help from the police.
The movie has quite a few shortcomings. First, the pacing is just too slow. The entire film is used to build tension. That's understandable, but it's executed very slowly and you eventually just want things to either heat up or end. Secondly, the music is overused in this film. It's tension building from the opening credits and it gets louder and faster at some of the most inappropriate times, such as when the flames of the fireplace kick on when the young heroine tries to turn on the TV. Thirdly, why do people need to hire a babysitter when there's a live-in maid on the premises? I understand that she sometimes leaves to check on her mother, but couldn't she just call her on this particular night? Finally, when the killer does make his presence known, he's man-handled pretty well by young, teenaged Jill while she's trying to escape with the kids.
I don't have any complaints with the casting of this film. Camilla Belle (Jill) and her two friends (Tessa Thompson and Katie Cassidy) do an excellent job as teeny-boppers. It also doesn't hurt that they are easy on the eyes. Lance Henriksen and Tommy Flanagan do a Darth Vader turn as the voice and body respectively of the Stranger. It probably would have been just fine if Henriksen took on the whole role because he's always been good in creepy flicks. Flanagan does well, but he has absolutely no lines in this film. All he has to do is chase Jill and stare at her sinisterly. The children have minimal lines, reduced to doing nothing but screaming, hiding, and having looks of sheer terror on their faces, but they are pretty good at doing that. The rest of the cast was pretty decent, but there weren't many people needed for a film which takes place almost entirely inside of a house.
The house itself is a sight to see. It's very big, has auto on/off lighting (which is dandy to build suspense), a bird and fish sanctuary with misting spray (another dandy suspense builder), and a few ghastly statues (yet another convenient suspense builder). Special effects are sparse (unless you consider the misting spray a special effect), but that's refreshing to see in a film these days.
Overall, this flick is a decent one-time viewer. I would be hesitant to tell you to buy this film since I don't see much of a reason to watch it multiple times. There are a few deleted scenes and the standard mini-documentary that's included on every other DVD, but nothing too amazing to look at. I would add that this film is the perfect young teen thriller for Halloween, since there's no sex, little language, and no gore whatsoever.
tense from beginning. . .untill the end, September 6, 2006
Reviewer: Nathan Porrata "THE MAN" (Crestview Florada U.S.A) -
When a stranger calls is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. . .until the end. The movie is about Jill, a high school student who takes a baby sting job somewhere in the middle of nowhere in a really big house which is, needless to say, a very bad idea. At first it is the easiest thing in the world. The fridge is stocked, there are plenty of movies, and the kids are all asleep. But than she starts getting dozens, and I do mean dozens, of calls from just about everyone she knows. But than she gets a call from a deranged sicko who wants to kill her for some reason. Don't ask me why, he just does. She starts to freak out and calls the police who send a police car but it will be 20 minutes until it arrives. But then she gets a call from the police who tell her the killer is inside the house. That is where the scares begin. Every dark hallway becomes a hiding place for the killer. Ironically the minute the killer actually shows up, the movie stops being scary and starts being nothing but an old fashioned slasher flick without the blood. He has lost the only thing he had going for him, his stealth. The more we see of him, the less he scares us.
Good for Home Decorating Ideas, that's about all, August 30, 2006
Reviewer: Jerry C (Boston, MA.) It is real easy to sum up this remake of the genuinely tense 1979 classic.
It is worth the $3.99 I paid to see it on Pay Per View for the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired house. That house is all there is to redeem this garbage.
I gave this one star only because I there is no option for no or negative stars which this deserved.
Save your money and buy the original.
Solid Remake, August 29, 2006
Reviewer: Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) gruesome murder provides a prologue as well as heavy foreshadowing in this tense remake. A teen has been grounded for using to many cell phone minutes so when she gets a babysitting gig she is driven by her father. The house is way out in the middle of nowhere and very elaborate. The house is almost like another character. The evening starts okay despite all of her friends being at a highschool version of Burning Man and a betrayal by one of her friends. But then the calls begin. At first they are no too bad but they quickly escalate and then tension rises.
The creep factor quickly climbs as things seem to begin to get out of control. Then it becomes obvious that this is not just a prank and that lives are on the line. Then tension and action quickly mount until the final scenes of the movie.
Much like the original Halloween, this movie relies heavily upon atmosphere, suspense and audience expectation. One has to wonder at the end if there will be any sort of sequel as we wonder what will happen to the teen now that everything is over. If you like your movies packed with high levels of tension and suspense and not just endless gore and violence, than you will get a real kick out of this one. Check it out.
Posted by lafemmenikita07
at 11:37 PM PDT
Updated: Sunday, October 1, 2006 5:06 AM PDT
quizzical
