When a Stranger Calls (1979)

• Year: 1979
• Released: 26 Oct 1979
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 1 win & 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080130/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/When_a_Stranger_Calls
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/when-a-stranger-calls
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
• Runtime: 97 min
• Writer: Steve Feke, Fred Walton
• Director: Fred Walton
• Cast: Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Rutanya Alda
• Keywords: babysitter, phone call,

	6.4/10
	58/100
	9% – Critics
	44% – Audience

When a Stranger Calls Storyline

High-schooler Jill Johnson agrees to babysit while a doctor and his wife enjoy a night on the town. After she tucks the children snugly into bed upstairs, phone calls from a stranger start to disrupt her quiet evening of study. At first the unidentified caller says nothing and Jill thinks an acquaintance is playing a prank. Several similar calls have her unnerved enough to call the police when the silent stranger still offers no clue to his identity. The phone calls continue – Finally, an eerie voice on the other end of the line asks ominously “Have you checked the children lately?” Apparently the stranger can see her and follow her movements. She closes all the curtains and turns out the lights believing that the darkness is her only hiding place. By now the police are tracing the origin of the calls and they tell Jill she must stall for time the next time he calls so they can complete the trace. More calls – “Why haven’t you checked the children?” Jill, by now frightened nearly out of her wits, screams into the receiver “Leave me alone!” and slams the phone down into its cradle. The next time the phone rings it’s the police: “We’ve traced the calls…they’re coming from inside the house!”

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When a Stranger Calls Movie Reviews

That opening sequence is still incredible.

It’s a story we’ve all seen before many times, a babysitter is terrified by an unknown stalker…

..however there is something pretty different about this one, for my shame, I had no idea this film existed, I enjoy what I now know to be the remake, but this original version deserves the credit for originality.

There is some real tension in the first twenty minutes, it’s a very powerful start, you are made to feel very uncomfortable as you watch Jill go from irritation to sheer panic.

Credit to Carol Kane, I think she plays the part of Jill very well, it’s such a sincere performance.

The music and filming work really well, a lot of thought went into its production. Nowadays we’re hardened to gore and violence, and horror in general, I can imagine when this went out, many people felt uneasy when home alone.

I think there is some real menace in this film, the scares are real, it’s just a shame that we only really get them at the beginning, and the end of the film. The middle segment of the film doesn’t quite have the same bite as the start and finish, but overall, it is still a cracking horror, 7/10.

dead middle

Babysitter Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) starts receiving prank calls from a scary man who keeps asking her to check on the children. “It’s coming from inside the house.” Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) had already killed the kids. Police detective John Clifford (Charles Durning) has the case. It’s seven years later and Duncan has escaped. He starts fixating on Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst).

The opening twenty minutes is amazing. I think everyone can see the copying from Scream. I wonder if this is where the call-coming-from-inside-the-house trope comes from. Carol Kane is part of the appeal but it’s more than that. It’s simple and stripped down. It’s brutal in its quiet terror. Then the movie takes an one hour break. It loses all momentum until we reunite with Carol Kane. Then the quiet terror resurfaces. There are basically two movies in one. The movie that bookends the story is a very compelling horror but the middle part is a lot of nothing with moments of weird creepiness.

“The phone call is coming from inside the house!”

Babysitter Carol Kane is terrorized by a madman who keeps calling, asking her if she’s checked the children. When she calls the police, they say they’ll investigate….. and eventually tell her that the call is coming from inside the house.

I don’t know how that worked in a day and age of only landlines and few homes with more than one telephone line. The first twenty minutes of this is a model of terror, based on the modern urban myth that Jan Brunvand calls “The Babysitter And The Man Upstairs”. Although the 1950 murder of Janett Christman is sometimes cited as a source of this story, Professor Brunvand’s researches have tracked many of these stories to antique sources; I had the pleasure of pointing out to him that an early version of “The Wedding Photo” appeared in Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT.

Scholarly musings aside, this is a well produced little shocker, with a cast that includes Ron O’Neal and Colleen Dewhurst. It’s a definitely a must-see for those with a taste for this sort of movie.