Originally published: May 28, 2006 @ 04:07am PST

"Have you checked the children?" - Stranger

Recently there’s been something of a boom of re-makes. We’ve had Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Next Generation a couple years ago, we’ve had Poseidon Adventure re-made (twice now in just the last year!), we’ve had The Island (a re-make of a 1979 movie called Parts: The Clonus Horror), and earlier this year we had When a Stranger Calls released. Sadly, I haven’t seen the original 1979 movie, but I hope to soon. So I’ll have to just judge this movie on its own merits.

The movie opens on a house then pans over slowly to show a carnival seemingly right in its back yard. As we see scenes of the carnival and of the neighborhood area, we hear a phone call and some of the conversation, all with the opening credits going over the scenes. Near the end of the sequence, we see a figure shadowed in the window of the first house… then a scream and the shadow falls away, like someone grabbed it. The next day, the police investigate and even the hardened detective looks like he’s about to lose his breakfast… as we see him regaining his composure, the police behind him are carrying out a series of black plastic bags.

We cut to another town, 125 miles away from the first. Here we meet Jill, played by Camilla Belle, who’s having problems with her boyfriend… because of this, her phone and car privileges have been cut off (seems that her boyfriend keeps calling her cell phone which drove her minutes sky high over the limit). To help make it up to her parents she’s babysitting for a rich couple, the Mandrakis family, to help pay her parents back. The house she’s at is amazing… automatic lights turn on and off when you enter or exit a room, it has a large enclosed koi pond and atrium, great view of the nearby river and it’s completely secluded.

At first, the babysitting job goes well, other than a few prank phone calls… but the calls start getting more frequent, every 15 minutes or so (movie time), and the last straw comes with the above quote. From there, the suspense builds even quicker than before.

I loved the movie. As I said, the suspense builds up pretty well, with us wondering who the caller is, if it’s someone we’ve seen in the movie - or if it’s some random lunatic. Making it even better was the fact that we don’t see who the Stranger is until the last few minutes of the movie… for the whole chase sequence, his face, most of his body, for that matter, is all in shadow.

Once I see the original, I’ll write a review for that, as well, and possibly a comparison between the two movies. For this movie, at least, I give a 5 out of 5. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

-- by Red Hawk of http://www.happyhorror.com

Tags: dvd, horror, movies, original, remake

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