When a Stranger Calls
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.49 You Save: $12.45 (83%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.63 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of When a Stranger Calls
Movie Review: An efficiently made, well-acted thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
So here I am, writing another review of a remake of another classicl horror/thriller film. The lack of originality in Hollywood these days is really mind-numbing. There aren't that many good remakes out there these days, but this is one of the few exceptions to that rule.
Jill Johnson is a grounded teenager who is being forced to babysit on a weekend night to pay off the balance of a cell phone bill that apparently went way over the amount of limited minutes. Having just broken up with her boyfriend, and now having to miss the big bonfire party, Jill is understandably upset, as any high school girl would be. She arrives at the house of the doctor she is babysitting for, and is told that the children are sick and already asleep. Everything is normal for a few hours, then the creepy phone calls commence, and from that point on, the movie takes off. The thrills and tense moments in the last half hour of When A Stranger Calls are some of the best I've had in a movie theater in quite a while. The atmosphere is perfect. The house is cool, but still very creepy, with many amenities that provide ways to creep out the viewer (motion-sensitive lights help some moments out a lot). Overall, the entire feel of the film is just very creepy, and this is good, because that's why I see a film like this, to be creeped out, or thrilled, or whatever.
One of the best things about the film is that it doesn't try to do anything more than is absolutely necessary to further the peril of the babysitter. We are given a minimal amount of setup, and, aside from a brief introduction to the film's villain, we pretty much get right down to business with the basica storyline. Girl is babysitting in creepy house. Girl gets creepy phone calls. Strange perpetrator tries to kill girl. What more can you ask for?
Surprisingly, I actually thought that the acting in the film was very good. The only character that appears that much is Jill, and the actress who plays her does a very good job. In fact, it was the least cliched and best-acted performance I'd seen from a female horror lead in a long time. The actor who plays the caller isn't ever really seen that much, but he is sufficiently creepy, and the cinematography on him is great, especially with the use of shadows to conceal his face for most of the final, thrilling sequence.
When A Stranger Calls probably isn't as good as the original. I wouldn't know, I've never seen the old version, but I do know that that remake isn't just some cheap slasher flick for teens, it's actually a well set up, efficient exercise in thrills and tension for the moviegoers.
Movie Review: When a Stranger Calls ( 2006 version)
Summary: 4 Stars
I just got home from the 7:30 showing of "When a stranger calls"! I have been very excited ever since I heard that this was being remade. A lot of the remakes lately have been really good (texas chainsaw massacre 03) a favorite.
As far as liking the original I was hoping it wouldn't be the same story we saw back in 1979 version! Yes that movie was very well done and very effective for its time, but times have changed and the changes in the 06 remake are awesome!
Yes I did have my doubts thou, seeing the rating was only PG-13 but let me remind you, you don't need an R rating to have a truly scary movie!!
The opening of this version opens very differently then the original. We see a small carnival and there's lots of people, old and young having a good time. Next to the carnival we see a small neighborhood. Over playing the titles we hear a few phone calls, no we the audience can't see who's talking but we hear it. A young girl keeps asking who is calling and why? Moments later we hear loud female screams cry out but know one seems to hear them since everyone is having fun at the carnival. The next morning detectives are dispatched to the house where they find a very sad scene.
The film then cuts to our main girl, Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) who is just your average high school student. Facing everyday drama, love interests and family.
Jill Johnson is babysitting for Mr. and Mrs. Mandrakis tonight and is very saddened because she would much rather be at her high school gathering with her friends. Jill is taken back by how amazing their house is!!! (And yes folks, this house is definitely one of the most amazing homes I have seen on film. For example, when you walk into a room the lights in that room automatically comes on)
Mr. and Mrs. Mandrakis soon head out after showing Jill around the house. Now the stage is set for one of the best suspense films I have seen in a longtime. Jill's evening seems so wonderful and perfect but soon her smarts kick in. After having prank phone calls and seeing shadowing figures move through and outside of the house she starts to panic, but Jill is a very tough and smart girl. Being thrown through one hell of a night and through a dark house that's like a maze, Jill fights back and takes control of the situation.
I totally recommend this movie to all who love horror and suspense films!! This is definitely one hell of a roller coaster ride and I loved it. Go and see it tonight, you wont regret it!!!
Movie Review: Sets a mood and delivers thrills the whole family can enjoy...
Summary: 4 Stars
What keeps me coming back to this remake is the sheer fact that it succeeds in so much while doing so little. It's hard these days to find a good thrill without all the excess blood, sex and language but here the same thrill is achieved with a stripped bare premise. It's dark, it's tense, it's claustrophobic and most importantly it's entertaining. Thankfully Camilla Belle is a good actress despite her youth and beauty and so watching her and pretty much only her for almost an hour and a half is doable and enjoyable even. She's convincing in her role as distressed damsel and while the script, like most of this genre, insists on making her repeat stupid mistakes to prolong her agony in the end she plays it smart and realistic.
It can be difficult to absorb an audience when your plot revolves around a few short hours, but here the time seems well spent. Nothing seems drug out nor compressed and boggled. Simon West does a great job of creating a mood with lighting and sound and not to mention that house which is enough to scare the bravest of souls. The movie starts slowly, setting that said mood, and then it gradually starts to build speed, and once the first body is dropped this train is loosed from its tracks and sent spiraling down at breakneck speed.
So, the premise is one that I'm sure everyone is familiar with, but here's the rundown. Jill has just had an outing with her boyfriend who just so happened to kiss her best friend. Because of this issue they've been spending quite a bit of time on the phone and thus her phone bill is outrageous causing her parents to take away her phone and her car and force her to baby-sit in order to pay off the bill. That's why she finds herself being stalked by a crazed killer at the Mandrakis residence with no way of leaving.
The film may not be perfect but what film is? It's tense and scary and proves that you don't need all the adult elements to make an interesting thriller. It meets its purpose and I've recommended it to all my friends and family and they love it as well. Well worth the time and money and will prove to be a great way to spend the night on the couch with some popcorn and a loved one. Now I have not seen the original and so I can't comment on the two in comparison but I can say that standing alone as a teen thriller `When a Stranger Calls' delivers the goods.
Movie Review: Campy fun indoors
Summary: 4 Stars
Kid reviews aside, this was a fun and entertaining movie that takes you away from your hard day and let's you sit back comfy in the chair, grab a soda and transform to another time and place.
Overall the movie was pretty short, and if you don't like 3 hour king kong sized movies, it provides for a refreshing alternative. Majority of the movie focuses on the house itself and the girl who grows more and more paranoid as the hours are ticking down, it gets dark and she doesn't feel alone in the deserted house.
The house is a work of art, with its geometric organic wood slabs and immense glass windows, placed in front of a lake, surrounded by a curvy mountain. When Jill has to baby-sit in order to pay for her huge phone bill, no thanks to her cheating boyfriend who kept on calling to straighten things out, she gets more than she bargained for.
The emptiness and the eerie coldness of the house is even more disturbing when lights in the rooms have sensor motion monitors and when strange sounds start setting Jill off. When the calls keep on coming and the house keeper suddenly disappears while leaving her purse and car and the calls grown more frantic and threatening, Jill has to take matters in her own hads, she also has to protect the children she is in charge in as a serious predator lurks in the shadows. He asked for her blood during his last call, and all the momentum the movie sets up for us, all the anticipation climbing up like a branch towards the light, crumbles through and with sound and fury, it unravels as he steps in and goes for Jill's flesh. She first hides but then she learns to fight back, as the movie does a good job of keeping you at the edge of the seat.
Fun flick, errie house and a crazy mad man. If you're a fan of Dean Koontz books, this might be your cup of tea; it totally reminded me of his work.
Movie Review: DRAGGY, BUT GOOD!
Summary: 4 Stars
Now I must say, the beginging of this movie was a little draggy. There was barely any talking in the first 30 minutes, but that's what it was suppose to be like. What the audience doesn't understand is, it is like that to make the movie more suspensful and when a loud noise occurs, you jump out of your seat. And I understand and I'm only 15.
Now for those people who don't know what this movie is about, I'll tell you.
A teenage girl who broke up with her boyfriend went over her minutes on her cell phone. 800 minutes to be exact. That was because of her boyfriend.So her father makes her babysitt to pay for those over due minutes. SO she babysitts for this doctor and his wife. And they got this huge, beautiful 3 story home thats on a lake. Now it looks like you can get lost in this houswe because its so big. So she is babysitting a little boy and girl who rest the whole time she's there because they got the flu. This house is built a little creepy. For example, the lights in the house are automatic lights. When you walk into a room, they turn on by themselves. So as she is sitting there, differnent parts of the house lights up and the phone keeps ringing from strange guy. And you see everytime she is in the living room after he starts to call her, he is standing right behind her looking through the living room window. She tries to find out where he's at and eventually the story leads to running away, murders, guessing and terror.
This movie is good to watch at night when the lights are out and your watching it in the dark and have it blasting. Then it's kind of creepy. Still, go see it, you might be suprised.