UHM - Review - When a Stranger Calls (Remake)

The original When a Stranger Calls had a lot of room for improvement, so when news of a remake broke out it didn't come as a huge shock to me, especially at this the rate Hollywood is going. Although, I had a hard time trying to understand how they would be able to top the intro the original had, particularly since we already knew where that pesky phone call was coming from. Somehow they managed to increase the intro from 20-minutes to a full length film, because this time 'round the babysitter pretty much stays in the house the whole time, unlike the original, which fast-forwarded a number of years. New characters and twists have been thrown into the mix. Aside from the obvious use of modern technology, such as cell phones, home alarm systems, etc.. the house is now 3 floors, and far away from the nearest town. Instead of the babysitter only being with the kids (and the killer), she now has the housekeeper, and an older son who lives in the guest house to call out to; thinking it's just one of them when she hears a strange noise coming from across the hall. Of course expanding the intro into a whole movie does become tiresome, which is why it received a lot of negative reviews. The movie really has nothing more to it than our lead talking on the phone and looking around frantically. In fact, the black cat that appears every now and then gives the audience more action and scares than the killer himself!

Next to the non-existent story, we're forced to endure Camilla Belle's so called "acting". The girl obviously only gets these roles for her looks, because it seems like she has an incredibly hard time expressing any sort of emotion. When it came down to fearing for her life, she just ran around a lot, while keeping the same dull expression on her face. As I said before, the movie has zero scares except for a few of the old-school boo-scares, where someone or something pops out of nowhere, hoping to give the audience a quick jump in their seats. Normally in this case I just let out a small sigh, and continue to wonder why they still try to scare the audience this way. The movie has very little similarities to the original aside from the basic theme, and our lead, much like in the original, never checks on the children, despite being a babysitter. Though, I did find that most of the dialogue exchanged between Jill and the police stay basically the same as the original, almost exact in some scenes. Sadly, this film really tries, but is neither tense, nor suspenseful, which was a big part of the intro and climax of the first. It's also sad that they still attempt to trick the audience into thinking that it takes a minute to trace a call, where in real life a call can be traced instantly.

The killer in this film was also less interesting than its predecessor, especially when Jill would answer the phone and he wouldn't say a word, leading us to wonder what's the point in calling if he's not going to tell her to check on those little brats upstairs. Interesting bit of little trivia about the killer -- genre fav. Lance Henrickson supplies the voice of the killer, with Irish actor Tommy Flanagan playing the killer himself. Despite the bad acting, slow-pacing, and the story essentially leading nowhere, it still has some ups from the original, but sadly they're few and far-between. Although it was an interesting effort into turning a faulty movie into something promising, thanks to the dubious lead actress and holes in the script, it fails to cause as much of an impact as the first.

OVERALL

The film somehow manages to be almost as dull and slow-paced as the original, only not as effective in the intro and climax. If you like movies involving a lot of phone-talking, then maybe you'll be into this.

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collin :

Posted 141 days ago

this is a very shitty movie i give it a 2 dont watch it u will be disapointed

todd :

Posted 390 days ago

this is a piece of shit

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