This remake of the 1979 semi-classic is another case of sorry, wrong number
February 8, 2006 (Press Release) --
Published: 2/7/2006
By: CARL CORTEZ
Contributing Editor
While not an altogether perfect film, 1979’s WHEN A STRANGER CALLS has that first killer twenty minutes that has stood the test of time. Director Fred Walton crafted a sleek, scary and unrelenting piece of film history about a babysitter (Carol Kane) being harassed by a mysterious phone caller who taunts her with the immortal words, "Have you checked the children?"
It’s 2006, and those words still have some bite left, but clearly this PG-13 has no idea what to do with them. This flaccid remake of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS misses so many opportunities to scare the audience, that it becomes a big laundry list of reasons why directors who are accustomed to helming big budget, noisy Jerry Bruckheimer movies (in this case CON AIR’s Simon West), should stay away from restrained, suspenseful murder mysteries like this.
By the time the movie gets cooking and all the pieces of Jake Wade Wall’s screenplay start to fall into place, West can’t resist from doing those annoying quick cutting, tight close-up action sequences complete with sudden lapses of time logic that work occasionally in an action movie, but fail miserably in a horror film.
Still, one of the smartest movies this new WHEN A STRANGER CALLS makes, is avoiding the awkward structure of the original. After the first 20 minutes of the 1979 film, it jumps ahead many years and suddenly becomes a crime thriller that fails to regain its momentum. Wisely, Wall uses that first 20 minutes as the basis for the entire 85-minute running time here. And while it might have sounded like a great idea at first, it does prove complicated in sustaining that tension for a whole film with a girl trapped in a remote house in the middle of nowhere.
Camilla Belle plays Jill Johnson, the ill-fated babysitter who finds her simple night of babysitting disrupted when she gets obscene phone calls from just about everyone she knows – ranging from her annoying friends to that mysterious killer who just so happens to be hiding in the house she’s babysitting.
Every lame cheap scare in the book is used to build up tension – including a cat that jumps out of nowhere. But this could have all worked, if it weren’t for some silly plot devices thrown in to "expand" the action. This includes one of Jill’s best friends showing up at the house unannounced. Mind you, this house is armed by a super-duper security system, yet she manages to walk right in and scare her friend. If it’s that easy for her friend, imagine how easy it is for a killer to hide out all night undetected.
more...
http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=1151
By: CARL CORTEZ
Contributing Editor
While not an altogether perfect film, 1979’s WHEN A STRANGER CALLS has that first killer twenty minutes that has stood the test of time. Director Fred Walton crafted a sleek, scary and unrelenting piece of film history about a babysitter (Carol Kane) being harassed by a mysterious phone caller who taunts her with the immortal words, "Have you checked the children?"
It’s 2006, and those words still have some bite left, but clearly this PG-13 has no idea what to do with them. This flaccid remake of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS misses so many opportunities to scare the audience, that it becomes a big laundry list of reasons why directors who are accustomed to helming big budget, noisy Jerry Bruckheimer movies (in this case CON AIR’s Simon West), should stay away from restrained, suspenseful murder mysteries like this.
By the time the movie gets cooking and all the pieces of Jake Wade Wall’s screenplay start to fall into place, West can’t resist from doing those annoying quick cutting, tight close-up action sequences complete with sudden lapses of time logic that work occasionally in an action movie, but fail miserably in a horror film.
Still, one of the smartest movies this new WHEN A STRANGER CALLS makes, is avoiding the awkward structure of the original. After the first 20 minutes of the 1979 film, it jumps ahead many years and suddenly becomes a crime thriller that fails to regain its momentum. Wisely, Wall uses that first 20 minutes as the basis for the entire 85-minute running time here. And while it might have sounded like a great idea at first, it does prove complicated in sustaining that tension for a whole film with a girl trapped in a remote house in the middle of nowhere.
Camilla Belle plays Jill Johnson, the ill-fated babysitter who finds her simple night of babysitting disrupted when she gets obscene phone calls from just about everyone she knows – ranging from her annoying friends to that mysterious killer who just so happens to be hiding in the house she’s babysitting.
Every lame cheap scare in the book is used to build up tension – including a cat that jumps out of nowhere. But this could have all worked, if it weren’t for some silly plot devices thrown in to "expand" the action. This includes one of Jill’s best friends showing up at the house unannounced. Mind you, this house is armed by a super-duper security system, yet she manages to walk right in and scare her friend. If it’s that easy for her friend, imagine how easy it is for a killer to hide out all night undetected.
more...
http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=1151
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