Directed by Simon West. Starring Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Kate Cassidy, Tessa Thompson. Horror/Suspense. Synopsis: A remake of the 1979 film of the same name telling the story of a young teen aged girl who is terrorized throughout the night ,while babysitting, by threatening phone calls from an unknown stranger who ultimately finds his way into the home.
I'm not one who is always down on remakes. Sometimes they work (Scarface), sometimes they don't (The Longest Yard). I do believe that, most often, you can't go home again. What I mean by that is, if you are going to remake a movie that was fairly popular and very memorable in its time-and was itself based on an urban legend that dates back in many forms at least forty years-you had better bring something new to table, whether its a different twist, feel, ...something, because we all know the story, and it is going to take us being enthralled with the character and sympathetic to her situation to have us jumping out of our seats like we did in '79. ( Not to mention the fact that we're no longer in 5th grade)
This version of When a Stranger Calls doesn't work for several reasons. First, it is updated to the present day, using the same characters, for the most part, as the original. Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) is a high school student who has just run afoul of her parents by going 800 minutes over her cell phone limit. (Hey, we've all been there. A little chit-chat, and the next thing you know, 12+ hours in the red) This was due to her cheating boyfriend...who had the nerve to actually kiss Jill's erstwhile best bud Tiffany (Kate Cassidy). As if that weren't enough, Jill's upper-middle class suburban hell gets a little hotter when Dad insists that she is going to have to babysit to pay off her debt for the overuse of the cell phone.
So, in addition to missing the big bonfire, Jill is barred by Dad from driving and using her cell phone as punishment as he drives her way out to the middle of nowhere to babysit for a rich couple who live in a house only slightly smaller than a small mid-western town. As if this was not already an all too evident recipe for disaster, what real life empathy we might be able to muster is hard to bring up because it is just so...obvious. Jill's Dad actually asks her "if she is going to be all right out here..." showing that he also has some concerns about his daughter. But, that doesn't stop him from dropping young Jill off to babysit for people she doesn't know (By Goodness, that bill has to be paid!!!)
O.k., you're thinking I'm being a little too tough here, but it gets better. Jill meets the Mandrakises, a rich power couple who are so busy and important that, even though they are only going to dinner and a movie, they almost forget to tell Jill where the kids are. Further making the set up just a little too unrealistic to get us where we need to be is the fact that, apparently, there is a live in maid upstairs, so Jill shouldn't worry if she hears "some bumping around up there" O.k., I'm an open minded guy, but the movie started to lose me here. I know that set up was put in there for two reasons: 1) to have there be another potential explanation for the noise Jill will surely hear after it gets dark and to add to the psychological terror she (and the audience) will feel and 2) give Jill a dead body to find later on. Fine.
But, I hate to state the obvious: if they have a live in maid why do they need a babysitter for six hours?
There's more. There is a guest house that their adult son sometimes stays in, but he has the bad habit of not telling them when he will be there. O.k., now its getting to be too much. Maybe I can deal with a young man needing to get away from his parents to the extent that he needs to crash in the guest house even though the main house is only slightly smaller than
But, again, wouldn't you at least check on the guest house...maybe big bro could babysit? By this time, I'm saying to myself "Unless the couple are in on it, this is just too unreal....", whether that observation is accurate or not I will leave to those of you who have not seen the film.
Well, it quickly gets dark and, (surprise!!!), its a windy and rainy night when the calls start coming in, interspersed with crank calls from Jill's buds (calling from the bonfire where the cell reception is so bad that it always cuts out later when Jill starts asking for help). Jill is the first teenager in a half-century not to have the TV and/or stereo going the whole time as she starts to field the calls.
Later, when best bud Tiffany shows up at the house (That Tiffany is something isn't she? Jill is no longer talking to her, but she manages to track Jill down at a house Jill has never been before) and the two engage in girl talk for a while. Jill, already uneasy about the calls, does just what anyone else would do in that situation: alone except for two kids she hasn't seen , no car, cops won't help you until you are already under attack, nasty storm outside, nobody answering their phone, homicidal lunatic calling every 10 minutes. So, when her best friend comes, what does heroine Jilly do? Well, she asks her to leave, of course, damn near pushing her out the front door.
I could go on, but you get the point. The set up and plot are just too far fetched and the circumstances too unrealistic. I'm not familiar with Camilla Belle's work outside of this film, but I think she has some talent. There just isn't much too work with in this script. Hey, Tom Hanks was in He Knows Your Alone, Kevin Bacon was in Friday the 13th, and Johnny Depp was in Nightmare on Elm Street , so there is life after teen age slasher flicks and I think Ms. Belle may do just fine.
I think the big problem here is that, unlike the original, in this version the entire movie is attempting to focus only on the calls throughout the night with no background or serious character development. Really, the best part of the film is the house, its wonderful looking and is best described as what those in the 70's probably thought all modern houses would look like by the 21st century.
Look, there may be some who will enjoy this, but its hard for me to see anyone over 18 with any real life experience being scared or enthralled. (I mean, this family is superrich, and you're telling me someone calling from that palace can't even get the local cops to send a car over...c'mon. As a former law enforcement officer, I don't know whether to laugh or get mad)
And, it should be said that the film at least tries to scare you without resorting to cheap gore, although there are other cheap cliche scare tactics (a black cat....I'm not kidding) If you go see or rent this one, understand what you are getting. Unrealistic camp without the usual good parts and cheap titillation which we all decry yet can't get enough of. Its a film that made an honest effort, which is what keeps it out of the Dud category, but took itself way too seriously and didn't give us enough credit.
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